Analogy:
Keeping a lookout on the left side of the road, when cars only travel from the right… If you get hit, its only because you weren’t looking in the right direction, right?
Have you ever felt betrayed? By a close friend or family?
How friends that were seemingly close like no other just drift away when life happens? Or how family members can be so two-faced and pretentious?
Or even by yourself? By how your thoughts and your actions contradict themselves so much? You know the ‘right’ way to think but yet act in an opposite manner when the circumstances ‘force’ you to.
I feel like i’m constantly in such a mode. Feeling both betrayed by others and myself. Betrayal comes from the unexpected- when you least expect something to happen and yet it does, you get caught off guard and start spiralling downward in this negative whirlwind.
As I was crossing the road today, I realised I was looking in the wrong direction for oncoming cars. And that gave me inspiration to write this (of course by the grace of God).
More often than not, the unexpected happens because we’re looking in the wrong direction. In most circumstances, we feel betrayed because we look to men to fulfil our desires, our needs and wants; we look to ourselves to fill that deep void within our hearts, that emptiness incomprehensible at times.
But as I pondered upon ‘looking in the right direction’, it dawned on me that the right direction for us should always be to Christ; looking to Jesus as our ultimate goal, desiring to live more and more like Him.
As the bible reminds us,
“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Hebrews 12:1 (NKJV)
The race of faith should always be from a position with our eyes fixed on Jesus, not to men, not to ourselves; for it is Him who supplies the grace for our faith, which fuels our journey with Him and on this Earth.
Speaking about betrayal, I am also reminded that Jesus himself had to suffer the betrayal of his own disciple too.
In Matthew 26:21
“Now as they were eating, He said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me.’”
Here, Jesus knew that Judas was going to betray Him, but He maintained such an elegant and poise demeanour. WHYYY?
In the earlier verse, Matthew 26:1-2
“Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, that He said to His disciples, ‘You know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.’ “
So clearly, Jesus knew His ‘fate’/ ‘goal’ , it wasn’t to keep all His disciples faithful (though it would have been ideal), it wasn’t to gain fame and fortune in His lifetime, but rather, it was to be a sacrifice for all mankind, then and forever.
Keeping His eyes in the right direction, for the right purpose that His father sent Him, allowed Jesus to always remain focused, alert and not distracted by what others did or said, no matter how painful it was.
I bet you it was painful for Jesus to know that His own disciple would end up betraying him days before His departure, but yet He did not allow His human emotions to get in the way of His goal, to throw in the towel and give up.
I think for us (me to say the least), emotions always get in our way of our goals. We allow the fleeting human emotions to direct our paths, shape our wants, and sometimes even come to a standstill in life, being absolutely directionless.
I hope and pray that as we are blessed with being able to have and feel emotions, may we not allow it to overwhelm us with confusion, to cause us to forget our true identity and to dim our vision of the author and finisher of our faith.
gracehopefreedom 