By I was 16 the first time I tried snow skiing. Standing at the bottom of the hill, watching people weave through pine trees and light poles, I was both amazed and terrified.
The final piece of advice the instructor gave our group before sending us down: “Don’t look at the trees or the poles. Focus on the open path in front of you.”
When someone asked why, he replied: “You will hit what you focus on.”
I’ve since learned that this isn’t just wisdom for skiers. Pilots are taught it. Drivers are taught it. Gamers figure it out fast. Look where you want to go, not at what you want to avoid.
I wish someone would have told me this the same principle governs the spiritual life.
For years, I measured my relationship with God by what I wasn’t doing. The list of don’ts was long. And the more I concentrated on not doing those things, the more I thought about them. The more I thought about them, the more I did them. Then came the guilt. Then came trying harder. Then came failing again.
Sound familiar?
The problem wasn’t my willpower. The problem was my focus.
Grace gives you something better to look at. Not a list of what to avoid, but a path defined by who you already are in Christ. That focus—on identity, on love already given, on a finished work—produces the kind of life that restriction never could.
(To help with that focus, I created a “Who I Am in Christ” mirror cling. It features six identity statements grounded in Scripture, so you see who God says you are every time you look at yourself. Get a 2- or 5-pack here.)