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Key Bible Verse: Without wavering, let us hold tightly to the hope we say we have, for God can be trusted to keep his promise Hebrews 10:23. Bonus Reading: Hebrews 12:1-2

One power tool in my arsenal is a belt sander. Its two rotating cylinders that drive a loop of sandpaper in a circular motion look a bit like a miniature Caterpillar track. The challenge is to keep the sanding belt in the middle of the track. The belt tends to slip to the right or the left, and eventually slides off the cylinders altogether if I fail to stop and make adjustments. So I end up sanding a bit, stopping to center the sandpaper, sanding some more, stopping, re-centering, sanding, and so on.

Belt sanding isn't a profound activity even for one who likes power tools. But it provides a useful metaphor for Christian spirituality. We slide off center, you and I. We need to stop and center ourselves in God's presence over and over again.

There are deadlines at work and bills to pay and children to taxi and all sorts of other distractions. The world tells us to speed up and step up and keep up. God whispers an invitation to slow down, to sit down, to center, to remember, to be bathed in grace and love and wisdom, to keep Christ as close as possible to the core of our lives.

—Mark McMinn in Finding Our Way Home

My Response: What adjustments would help me re-center on Christ?

Thought to Apply: The tragedy is that our eternal welfare depends upon our hearing, and we have trained our ears not to hear. —A.W. TOZER (Illinois pastor)

Adapted from Finding Our Way Home (Jossey-Bass, 2005) by permission.

Copyright © 2007 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine. Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

When I feel driven and distracted, Your voice gets drowned out. Help me, Lord, to discover how to focus on Your presence in my life.

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