Monday, December 1, 2008

"Eyes in the boat"

When I was a plebe at the Naval Academy there were a number of disciplines we had to follow, many of which seemed silly.  One example was that we had to "chop" or jog down the center of the hall of our dormitory and square all corners when we turned, shouting "Go Navy", "Beat Army" on alternate turns.  When we were in ranks, marching, or sitting at the dinner table we had to keep our eyes and head straight ahead.  If we turned our head or our gaze an upper classmen would scold us and say, "Keep your eyes in the boat"!..to get us to return our "straight-ahead" view.  I was thinking some more about keeping my eyes on the Lord this morning.  I realize that problems, circumstances, and just plain daily living make it impossible to absolutely keep my focus on the Lord all the time...so I think the key is returning our gaze to Him whenever it is moved off center.  The scripture that came to mind was: Isaiah 26:3 You will keep him in perfect peace,
                                Whose mind is stayed on You,
                                Because he trusts in You.
I realized that our need for help should cause us to come to the Lord and trust Him to meet that need.  He then can meet that need and provide the help we turned to Him for.  Perhaps, more importantly, the result is complete and perfect peace in our hearts as a result of leaning in the Lord rather than ourselves.
I'm going to try to keep bringing my mind back to the Lord today and to depend on Him...because my greatest need is that "perfect peace".

blessings,
Rob Smith

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