Stephen Brown taught swimming and diving for a number of years.  He tells about a young boy named Billy.  Billy had watched so many professional divers and wanted so much to dive like them that he refused to take time to learn the basics.  Time after time Brown tried to help Billy see that the most important thing about diving was to keep his head in the proper position.  If his head entered the water properly, Brown explained, the rest of his body would enter the water properly – at least, more properly than it had been.

Billy would dive into the pool, do a belly flop, and come up grinning, “Mr. Brown,” he would shout, “were my feet together?”

“Billy, I don’t care whether your feet were together or not,” Brown shouted back.  “Make sure your head is straight, then everything else will work out.”

The next time Billy would stand on the edge of the pool and really concentrate.  Then he would dive and, once again, make a mess of it.  “Mr. Brown, were my hands together?”

“Billy,” Brown would groan in frustration, “I’m going to get you a neck brace and weld it onto your head.  For the hundredth time, if your head is right the rest of you will be right.  If your head is wrong, the rest of you will be wrong.”*

The way that we live our lives has everything to do with our “heads” – the way that we think, the values that we set, and where we place our focus.

We need to “get our heads right.”

Here is a Scripture to help us: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2 NIV).

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus…

He is our Great Example.  “For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps” (1 Peter 2:21).

He is the Savior.  He “endured the cross” and died for our sins so that we can be saved from our sins and live eternally with Him in heaven (1 Peter 2:24).  He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one can go to the Father except through Him (John 14:6).

God will save and give eternal life to those who place their faith and trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from their sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38).  If we will continue to “fix our eyes on Jesus” and dedicate our lives to following Him, He will continue to cleanse us from sin (1 John 1:7-9).

As we embark upon a new year or whatever time we have left, let’s “get our heads right.”  Let’s fix our eyes on Jesus and follow Him.

Won’t YOU?

-- David A. Sargent

* From Stephen Brown, When Being Good Isn’t Good Enough, Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, as quoted by www.thedisciplers.com.

David A. Sargent, Minister

Church of Christ at Creekwood 
1901 Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama  36695

Archived issues of Living Water can be viewed and accessed from our website at: www.creekwoodcc.org