Looking in All the Right Places

Debby Baril

We were 10,000 feet in the air. I held the joystick in my hand following my uncle’s instructions. “Relax your shoulder and arm and use one finger to guide the plane. Keep your eye on this instrument to keep the altitude steady. I’ll take care of the speed and all the other controls.”

I worked on relaxing my arm, resting it in on my leg, while guiding the plane with one finger. I glanced at the instrument panel making sure our altitude was steady as I guided the plane over the lush landscape. I was flying a plane! How amazing is that?

Taking over the controls, my uncle explained he had to bring us down because we had climbed too high. Wait! What? But I was watching the instrument panel, confident that I was keeping the plane at a steady altitude, not realizing all the while we were slowly climbing higher. The problem: I was looking at the wrong indicator!

My uncle reoriented the plane and handed back the control. There were no undercurrents of disappointment or shame, but simply, “Let’s go again!” What a gift! I started again, this time with my eye on the right instrument.

Life can be like that. We think our direction and altitude are steady and on target, and without realizing it we are going off course one degree at a time.

We are instructed in Hebrews to, “run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith” (12:1b-2 NIV).

Fix our attention on Jesus! Sounds simple enough. Yet, we all know that a slight gaze to the left or to the right, a distraction here or there, and the stuff of life can cause us to veer off course and do so without intending or even realizing it.

Thanks be to God who sends us leaders, mentors, and faithful friends, full of the Holy Spirit to reorient and cheer us on.

As leaders, we are called to encourage and admonish others to keep their eyes fixed on Christ; reorient them when they lose focus, remind them of their high calling in Christ when everything else demands to take their attention away, and help realign their priorities to seek first God’s Kingdom and His righteousness, while at the same time making sure we do the same. We really do need one another!

Whether you find yourself receiving or giving correction, remember God’s corrective measures are always life-giving and never clothed in disappointment or shame. They are a gift that enable us to look in all the right places and, “Go again!”