Heb 12:1b-3

While watching a bunch of really bad movies last night, I was thumbing through a couple of books: an antireligious self-help book (why the fervent need to be “antireligious”?), my old calculus book (I like reading the mathematician bios – go figure), my Astronomy magazines, and a somewhat-Protestant-tinged Bible study guide.

It was the last book, a slim little devotional to “Excellence,” from a Biblical point-of-view, that made the greatest impression on with me, especially as I got ready for bed and slumbered the pre-dawn hours away. This quote, in particular:


“ … let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith. For the sake of the joy that lay before Him He endured the Cross, despising its shame, and has taken His seat at the right of the throne of God. Consider how He endured such opposition from sinners, in order that you may not grow weary and lose heart.”


It’s Hebrews, chapter 12, verses 1b-3.

I’m not familiar with that book, towards the end of the New Testament. In full I only read it once, way back in ’92 when I read through the Bible from beginning to end mid-February to mid-April. I’ve tried reading through it a couple times since, but I always found it a dry and somewhat difficult read. I’d say it’s easily the most difficult book of the New Testament. I’d rather read Revelation, or the Gospels, or even Romans.

Anyway, the verses stuck with me all through the night, echoing behind my occipital bones.

“Keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus”… Do any of us really do that? Is that what is expected of us, truly, those who claim to be Christians? Those who claim to be “disciples” of Christ? Can it be humanly done? Keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus?

Think about it. What do we normally focus on throughout the day? Work? Family? Politics? The mindless inanities we watch on the tube (such as The Amityville Horror)? The single-minded pursuit of short-term and fleeting pleasures? Or simple and possibly self-destructive ways to avoid pain? Imagined sleights, guilt over things that may or may not have happened years ago, anxiety and fear over an illusive future? How about the next item on a never-ending to-do list? Seriously. If you had to chart out in an Excel spreadsheet the percentage of your thoughts * , what would the break down be? Do you even spend 1 percent on Christ? **

Paul tells us to keep our eyes on Jesus. He also says to pray ceaselessly (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Can you possibly imagine how your life may change if you took this admonition literally?

Perhaps that’s why those three verses reverberated within my mind throughout the night.


* I’ve read that we have up to 45,000 thoughts a day. I don’t know the veracity of that figure, but I think it makes sense. If you’re awake 18 hours a day, that breaks down to 2500 thoughts an hour, or about 41 thoughts a minute, which yields the average time of just over a second per thought. Makes sense if you count the fleeting stimuli that enter our mind and average in those periods we concentrate on a narrow band of ideas or images.

** One percent of 45,000 is 450. Do you think about Jesus Christ 450 times a day? I don’t know about you, but I consider myself fairly devoted, and I probably think of Him maybe ten or twenty times a day. That’s something like half-a-percent of one percent. Good grief! I spend more thoughts in internal debate on what flavor ice cream to buy at the grocery store … Lord help me!