One of the largest challenges whether we are leading in our jobs, churches or just in our everyday ordinary lives is how we stay on course. We generally start with good intentions, and even reset with good intentions when we have a break or a time of reflection, but when we are in the thick of the everyday it becomes so much more complicated to stay on course.

So how do we? The writer of the Hebrews talks about it like this.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith………..Hebrews 12:1-2 (NIV)

They identify 3 keys to staying on course.

• Throw of everything that hinders – the longer we live the more things we pick up. Having more relationships, belongings, responsibilities etc. means that we have more and more things that we have to deal with. The challenge with the more is working out what we need to drop, what we need to continuing carrying, and what we need to pick up. When we are holding too much it is much harder to see where we were meant to be going and it will usually take us longer to get there. By learning to throw off the things that hinder, we will become tuned to what we hold and therefore what we might end up picking up in the future.

• Run with Perseverance – we only need to persevere when there is difficulty in front of us. If the way was easy and the path was always straight then perseverance wouldn’t be required. The path that we have to walk in life is filled with difficulties and distractions. Perseverance will always be required because without it we would give up and camp in the middle of our difficulties – the writer of the Hebrews doesn’t give us that option – in fact they call us to run with perseverance, not simply walk. In order to stay on course we must learn the art of perseverance.

• Fix our eyes of Jesus – this is the only way we know the course we are running in the first place so it makes complete sense that we would keep our eyes on Him. So often we fix our eyes on what others want us to do or even what Jesus has called us to do. However our eyes aren’t meant to be on what He called us to do as much as they should be on Him.

It’s vital that we stay on course in whatever sphere we are operating. Let’s not simply drift on this adventure and move off course only realising that we went astray when it is too late to course correct.