“We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.”
— Hebrews 2:1
“People do not drift toward Holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord.”
— D.A. Carson
THE QUIET DRIFT
Recently, I’ve been wrestling with a tension in my life. I feel like I’m everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Like I’m doing a hundred things, but none of them at full strength. Spread too thin by the overhead of my own life.
And in the midst of this fog, I told my wife, “I don’t feel fully deployed.”
We had a conversation this past weekend that brought some clarity. We started talking about our schedule, where our hours were going, what was eating up our time, how our days were being shaped. And we came to a sobering conclusion:
We were living out of obligation, not intention.
Our schedules weren’t reflecting our values. They were reflecting our pressures. We were busy… but not intentional.
And we were reminded by the quote above: we won’t drift toward holiness.
You drift toward hurry. Toward clutter. Toward numbness. Toward just “getting through the day.”
If you’re not intentional, the current of culture will pull you further from the life you truly desire.
THE INTENSITY OF THE PURSUIT
Many of you are probably in the same boat.
You’re not lazy. You’re not apathetic. You’re just running.
Task to task, meeting to meeting, errand to errand, only to look up at the end of the week and wonder what actually mattered.
You’re busy building, but you’re not entirely sure what the outcome of your efforts may be.
For many of us, the intensity of our pursuit has been caught up in lesser loves.
Louie Giglio once said:
“The value of a possession is seen in the intensity of the pursuit.”
So take a look at your life. Take an honest audit of your time, your bank account, your thoughts, your habits.
What are you chasing with the most consistency?
Because that will reveal the hierarchy of your truest values.
And maybe that’s why you feel so scattered.
So exhausted. So spiritually hollow even though you “believe all the right things.”
You haven’t drifted because of one big decision. You’ve drifted because of a thousand small ones.
THE NEED FOR FOCUS
Here’s something freeing that I heard a few years back.
You’re probably not off-course in terms of where you live, who you’re around, or what season you’re in. You’re probably just distracted.
You’re living the life God has called you to, but without the intensity and intention required to thrive in it.
And the enemy loves it that way. He doesn’t need to derail your faith with sin. He just needs to keep you chasing things that don’t matter. He’ll gladly keep you “productive” as long as you never become powerful. Because you can’t be powerful in the kingdom if you’re constantly preoccupied with the world.
Jesus told us exactly what to focus on:
Love the Lord your God.
Love His people.
Live sent into your circle.
If your attention is centered there, your life will overflow with meaning.
But if your attention is divided, your life will be a blur.
DISTRACTION IS THE DEVIL'S FAVORITE WEAPON
We live in the most distracted age in human history. And the enemy knows that if he can’t destroy you, he’ll distract you.
He’ll bury your soul in noise. He’ll fill your calendar with meaningless meetings. He’ll make your phone the most powerful idol in your pocket.
And he’ll convince you that, “This is normal. Everyone lives this way.”
But it’s not normal. It’s numbing.
We’ve convinced ourselves that we don’t have time for a quality pursuit of the things of God.
That we don’t have time to sit with Him.
That we don’t have time to get in the Word.
That we don’t have time to pray over our spouse or check in with our kids or call that friend or show up to that gathering.
But you do have time.
You’re just already using it.
You’re spending your energy elsewhere.
And the longer you keep spending it on things that won’t matter in five years, or five minutes, the more your soul will shrink inside a life that looks full.
A FINAL CHARGE
Holiness doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when you orient your life around what God values most. That means doing an audit.
That means pulling back the curtain on your routines, your habits, your relationships, and your time, and asking, Does this reflect the kingdom?
Because if you’re not steering the ship of your soul, the current will carry you. There is not a neutral place on planet Earth my friends.
So this week:
Name the lesser loves you’ve been chasing. Cut one thing that doesn’t matter. Reinforce one thing that does. Start your morning with Jesus again. Start small…but start.
Holiness is not a pursuit of perfection, it's a radical pursuit of the one who is.
It’s your life aiming at what matters most.
You don’t need a better schedule.
You need a better center.
Put Him back in the middle.
Everything else will shift into place.
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