D: Drift

I was playing Scrabble the other day with a friend on line and found I had the letters to make the word kedge. The word is synonymous for anchor. Thinking about having and needing an anchor led me to think about drifting. What images come to mind when you think of drifting? For me, it’s lazy, mindless, floating away. And it’s not a bad image. Spiritually, it’s quite a different story.

There are many warnings in scripture to pay attention, to listen carefully, to stay focused to the end. The only place where we are warned against drifting is in Hebrews 2:1, “We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.” A single reference might seem to diminish the importance, until you take into consideration that the entire book of Hebrews is like one huge warning to wake up and pay attention so that we don’t lose what’s most important.

God must have known how prone to wandering and drifting we would be. In the longest chapter of the longest book of the Bible, Pslam 119, we find some good words to help us with this problem. Actually, from that psalm we learn the keys to keeping our hearts anchored so that we can avoid drifting. There are so many, but here are just a few to get started with. Notice in verse ten that the Word can keep us from straying or wandering. When we are feeling weak, we can find renewed strength in the Word (vs. 28). When we feel confused, in the dark, the word becomes our light (vs. 130). Knowing this, is it any wonder that we are instructed to bind the Word to hearts, to tie them to our wrist, to wear them on our foreheads?

The hymn writer understood this bent to wandering, to drifting. In a statement of admission and a plea, we find these words: Prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here’s my heart, oh take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts above. Are you anchored or drifting? If you haven’t been paying attention, then listen up! It’s not too late to drop anchor!