One moment you're lying back on your inflatable enjoying the sun on your face and the sound of lapping waves, and the next moment when you look up you discover that you're no where near where you thought you were and you're moving further and further away from safety. You weren't aware it was happening but you've slowly been drifting away.
Or else you're rowing or swimming towards a point on the shore, and yet it seems as though you're never going to make it no matter how hard you try - you're either making no headway or you're constantly been blown off course and having to keep on adjusting where you're headed.
On Sunday at CBC we resumed our new series in the New Testament book of Hebrews where there is a warning to pay most careful attention to what we have heard (about Jesus) so that we do not drift away - Hebrews 2:1.
The thing with drifting, certainly at the beginning, is that often we're not even aware that it is happening. And by the time that we do realise it can be too late.
Certainly when you're drifting at sea you only know it is happening if you've got some fixed reference point. If you're floating around with a group of friends on your inflatables you will have no idea whether you're drifting or not - because you'll all be drifting together. The only indication will be your position in relation to a fixed position over the course of time.
When we stop paying careful attention to what we have heard about Jesus it may not seem as though anything has changed, but there is a risk that we are slowly drifting away.
