Greater Attention

When I came to the season of retirement almost ten years ago, the words, "Pay Attention" got lodged in my mind in such a way that it has been carried like a new spiritual logo.  Retirement brought with it the jarring realization that there are more days behind than there are ahead which means that wasting one should not be entertained as an option.  Some smell the roses, or the coffee.  I make an effort to pay attention to what is going on around me and within me. 

 

So, in a recent reading of the book of Hebrews, I stopped abruptly when I came to the first words of the second chapter.  "Therefore we must pay greater attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it."  Somehow I had missed this word through the years of reading the Word.  It is not enough to simply pay attention for here is a call to pay greater attention.  Of course, the greater attention has a particular focus.  What has already been heard, or what is already known about the way of faith is what needs greater attention. 

 

I remember a sermon somewhere along the way in which the preacher said that God could not be expected to say a new word to us until we had taken seriously the word He had already spoken.  It makes sense.  Why should we be entrusted with more when we have not been faithful with what we have heard?  To pay greater attention is a word to take more seriously the things we know.  It is a call not to take our life with Christ for granted.  It is a call to take seriously the fact that Christ has died for us and that there is no life without Him.  Paying greater attention to the Christ and His way keeps our heads up, our minds sharp, and our hearts open to what He has done and whatever it is that He is doing in our lives in days still to come.