The Compass That Did Not Point Away

For the believer who has been navigating by what he's steering clear of.

The letter to the Hebrews was written to people who were seriously considering going back.

They'd lost property. Some of them had been publicly humiliated, and some had visited friends in prison at real risk to themselves. They'd held on for a long time and the holding had cost more than they'd expected, and now the writer is trying to keep them from drifting away from the thing that had cost them everything.

He could have spent the whole letter on the dangers. He does warn them, plainly and more than once. But when he arrives at the instruction that has to carry them through, he doesn't tell them what to avoid at all.

He tells them where to look.

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.Hebrews 12:2, the opening line (KJV)

Not looking away from anything. Not watching out for. One direction, one Person, and no warning in the sentence at all.

You are able to steer by what you're aimed at rather than by what you're keeping clear of. The written Word gives the instruction as a direction rather than a warning, and the Holy Spirit is the one keeping your eyes where the verse puts them.

What Avoidance Navigation Does to a Man

There's a way of being a Christian that runs almost entirely on avoidance, and it works for a surprisingly long time.

You know which books to be wary of, which preachers to be careful about, which phrases signal that somebody has gone off somewhere. You could describe the errors around you in detail, and you'd be right about a good number of them, because you've been paying close attention for thirty years.

What you'd struggle to describe with the same precision is the thing itself. Ask him what he's aimed at and he'll give you four sentences, all decent, all a little general. Ask him what he's steering clear of and he'll talk for an hour with examples.

That isn't a character flaw. It's what happens to anybody taught to navigate by hazards, and hazards are genuinely easier to see than a destination, which is exactly the problem.

A Direction Rather Than a Warning

That line in Hebrews arrives after a long list of people who held on, and it arrives at the moment where the readers most need something to do.

The writer has every reason to say stay away from what you were tempted by. He'd been specific about the danger a few verses earlier. Instead the instruction narrows to one direction and one Person, and the danger isn't mentioned in it at all.

That's a deliberate piece of pastoral care. A man told what to avoid still has to work out where to go. A man told where to look has been given the whole of his navigation in four words, and the avoiding takes care of itself as a by-product.

You are pointed at a Person rather than warned off a hazard. The written Word puts your eyes on Christ rather than on the danger, and the Holy Spirit keeps that direction live rather than theoretical.

A Compass Has Only Ever Had One Job

Here's what I'd take out of that letter if I could carry a single thing away with me.

A compass doesn't warn you about anything. It's the most single-minded instrument ever made. It doesn't know where the rocks are, it doesn't flag the shallows, and it has no opinion whatsoever about the routes other people are taking.

It points at one thing, continuously, and every hazard you avoid is avoided as a consequence of a heading rather than as a thing you were tracking.

That's why a man can give you an hour on the errors and four general sentences on the destination. He's been handed a hazard chart and told it was a compass, and a hazard chart will keep you off the rocks for years without ever taking you anywhere.

You've been given a compass rather than a hazard chart, and it has only ever pointed one way. The written Word fixes the heading on Christ Himself, and the Holy Spirit is the one holding the needle steady in you.

This Isn't a Criticism of the People Who Warned You

Let me be plain, because there's a version of this message that would wound you and I won't write it.

The people who taught you the hazards were not small-minded. Most of them had watched somebody they loved go badly wrong, and the carefulness in their voice was grief rather than suspicion. They were trying to keep you, and a good deal of what they told you was accurate.

I'm not asking you to think less of them or to stop being careful. Nothing here says the rocks aren't real. I'm saying that a heading does a job a warning cannot do, and that you were owed both.

You can keep every warning you were given and still steer by the heading. Scripture supplies the direction without disparaging anyone who taught you the dangers, and the Holy Spirit adds rather than demolishes.

Stories in these messages are illustrations unless marked as testimony.