Spatial points

Bev was excited. She had just heard for the first time the phrase "being in the center of God's will," and said to me, "I want that!"

It does paint a lovely picture, doesn't it? We think of a bull's-eye in archery, and a fastball sizzling into the strike zone. The red or blue circles of the archery target are nice, but there's nothing like the sight of an arrow stuck fast in that yellow center ring. Low-and-inside-corner is acceptable, but there is nothing like the solid thud in Yadier Molina's mitt that prompts the ump's "steeee-rike!"

A good visual aid helps us to think more clearly. When I picture "being in the center of God's will," I picture myself not bobbing and drifting mindlessly and distractedly away from God-floating into the weeds. The flesh's tendency is to drift, the Bible tells us:

"Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it" (Hebrews 2:1).

Providentially, the verse not only tells us the problem but gives us the remedy: "We must pay much closer attention." To what? "To what we have heard." What have we heard? Well, everything we read in God's Word. And how can we pay much closer attention to it? By obeying it at once: forgive, love, be gentle, be hospitable, refrain from worry, don't let the sun go down on your anger, etc.

Other spatial directives from Scripture are these exhortations from the Old Testament:

"Do not swerve to the right or to the left …" (Proverbs 4:27).

"You shall be careful therefore to do as the Lord your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right or to the left" (Deuteronomy 5:32).

God's Spirit in us is always gently nudging ("Andrée, honor your mother" or "Andrée, stop worrying about your body"), and we need to develop a sensitivity to His nudgings. There are so many choices we make from sunrise to sundown. I want to be found doing what's at dead center of His will all day.