Colossians 3:1-3 if then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
It had to of served as some kind of target for the National
Guard to use as something to aim for when practicing their drills. No matter
what the purpose of the X was it did remind me of my school years when we use
to put X’s on things and then say, “X marks the spot.” It was a game we would
plan then but as an adult the game changed into something more to me.
When life’s storms were at their peak I would use the X to
try and stay focused on God. At work whenever things got rough and rocky I
would make an X on a piece of paper and would look at that while the politics
of the office went on around me. It gave me something to focus on and to not be
sucked into the negative magnetic force around me.
It was a trick that worked rather well at home and at work
or wherever I was because it made me zero in on Jesus and thinking about things
above. As the world tried to get me to focus on the negative, the bad things,
the politics of the office, the bitterness at home I had a focus. A much better
focus than what the world was offering me.
This is what the scripture in Colossians is telling us to
do, to seek and stay focused. The challenge of this scripture is the fact that
at times you wish they would list those “things above” so you could focus on
them. In the heat of a moment, in the highlight of a dark time sometimes it can
be hard to think, “Ok what are some of the things I can think of that are from
above instead of what is going on down here on earth.”
First thing that we can think about is Jesus. He is
definitely from above and is something worthy of focusing on. To prevent us
from focusing on Christ this is where Satan likes to step in to interfere. The thought of, “If Jesus cares and loves me
so much then why is this happening in my life, why doesn’t He stop it. Why?
Why? Why?”
STOP! You have just gone back to focusing on the things of
the earth, the circumstances around you that are happening, the negative, the
sad, and the difficult. God has put up an “X” for us to focus on, to get our minds
off of the things of the world. That “X” is on His love, Jesus Christ, joy, inner peace, abundant
strength, and everlasting guidance, forgiveness, grace, mercy, and life eternal in a place free of pain and suffering.
X marks the spot, but it’s up to us where we are putting
that X. We can focus on the things of the world that will only tear us down or
we can focus on the things from God that build us up. The one destroys, the
other gives life. Which is it going to be? Where are you putting your X?
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