Later this month, humans will once again attempt to orbit the moon. As you can imagine, strong navigation skills are essential for a successful mission. Compared to Mars, this mission is somewhat more straightforward because the destination is visible. However, mistakes can still occur, even when you can see exactly where you need to be.
What happens when the destination is not immediately visible? If you board a cross-country flight, you expect your pilot to know the exact heading to your destination airport. Generally, flying west for six hours is not sufficient; you could end up hundreds of miles away. It doesn’t matter that the flight took a long time, that fuel was burned, or that money was spent. The final destination would still be incorrect. Some might rationalize, saying, “Well, at least we made it somewhere warmer,” or “That took a lot of effort, but look, we crossed the entire country!” The problem is that we still are not in the right place.
Unfortunately, too many churches and individual Christians find themselves in this situation today. They chose the wrong heading a long time ago. Instead of correcting their course, which now requires more effort and time, they settle and rationalize their situation. Some might even claim that their outcome is superior to that of those who chose the right path.
This can apply to morality, worship, doctrine, or even evangelism. If we lose sight of our goal, we risk drifting off course and ending up somewhere entirely different. We begin compensating for the new outcome rather than correcting to the one that God intended. We start to justify our current position instead of measuring the outcome against God’s standard.
Like a pilot, we must pay attention to where we are headed. As Hebrews states, “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it” (Heb 2:1). If we do not closely monitor our heading, mission, and goal, we are likely to end up at the wrong destination. We will accept what we should not and turn our hearts to something entirely different.
Living a life for Christ and as members of His church requires constant course correction. This is true whether you are a leader guiding the ship or the lowest servant on board. New challenges will test our faith, which may seem innocuous but can have disastrous results. Keep the goal in mind, adjust your heading, and pay close attention to His Word, lest we find ourselves miles away from our eternal destination.