With our recent emphasis on creating beneficial habits and leveraging the power of our future expectations, today we step into the new motivated energy we’ve created around our goals and embrace the phrase, “Eyes on the prize!”
When I was in college, a group of friends and I took an epic road trip from Milwaukee to Orlando for our spring break. My best friend’s dad somehow graciously gave us permission to use their spacious Lincoln Navigator for the journey. While each of the five of us took turns driving, I ended up with what I will officially declare to be the most brutal leg of the trip. It was the middle of the night. We were in the mountains of Tennessee. It was raining harder than the windshield wipers could handle. I was driving through a construction zone inches away from the concrete barricades that protected the construction workers and threatened to scrape the edge of not my car! As my best friend cheered me on, we both feared and laughed at the ridiculous number of driving variables that were suddenly upon us. Together, we simply started chanting “Eyes on the prize!”
How’s that for some context for this phrase of the day? And how might you take those words and apply them to what you’re going through right now? We all face wild variables that affect our ability to focus, that prevent us from taking action toward our goals, and beg us to live in a state of fear and uncertainty. For my driving that night, I had to counteract the variables with some deep breaths, some reframing, and a white-knuckle-grip-of-death on the steering wheel. But we made it. And you will, too.
As you keep your “eyes on the prize” in the situations that you face, what are your versions of deep breathing, reframing, or gripping firmly that can help you press on? If you’re struggling to answer that question, I’d love to share the words of Paul from Philippians 3:13-14: “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
Did you catch all of that? What’s done is done, but we still have to navigate the future. That might sound incredibly scary, but the fear subsides when you remember that God holds your calling, he’s faithful to his promises, and your prize is secure because of what Jesus Christ did to redeem you. So, we press on toward heaven with our eyes on a prize that is better than any trip to Disney World, better than any promotion, better than any fitness goal, better than anything this fallen, temporary world can offer.
With our eyes on the ultimate prize of heaven, the seemingly overwhelming phases of this life don’t seem so big. They’re passing seasons. You will make it through. Take a deep breath, reframe what you’re going through, grip the steering wheel with Jesus by your side, and keep your eyes on the prize!
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