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Managing the Drift
Scott Miller • June 29, 2021
Over the last several months Angie and I have been enjoying the excitement and joy that comes with the idea of “big river rafting”. Our work life, family life, and married life has been very much like a class 5 river rafting trip. So much fun, laughter, fear, anxiousness, and the exhaustion is for real. As Angie and I celebrate our 30th anniversary this month I am blown away with how my wife can do all that she does. Not only teaching in person throughout the entire covid year, but the last several months she has jumped into the ministry of FCA with both feet. We finished up our Night of Champions, the golf tournament AND camp in South Dakota and my amazing wife was with me every step of the way. I am so grateful for her and even more grateful for the faithfulness of God walking with us each step of the way.
Reflecting on the last 8 weeks of our wild ride, I noticed that the weeks leading up to our big summer
events, Angie and I were up every single morning at 5:30am. We didn’t set alarms, we didn’t plan it.
We were just up every morning. We would grab a coffee, sit in our backyard and read the word. So
unusual for me personally that in the middle of the most crazy Spring I have had in a very long time we
had this moment, this sacred pause, this space of genuine peace. Then just as we caught our breath,
our schedule swept us up, tossed us around and filled our days with thoughts of “what just
happened”. Here is the weird thing though. We finished up with school, graduations, and our big
events and the rapids we were navigating turned into a giant slow moving river. We didn’t have to be
looking for the next big crashing wave, the next massive rock, the next sink hole….. we got to relax,
we got to take a breath, we had a time to lay back and shut our eyes. Guess what happened. We
began to drift. I slept a little longer, we made sure to share a coffee, but the time in the word became
sporadic at best. We began to drift because we did not have the urgency of dependance to navigate
our path. In some regards we had to pay closer attention to manage the drift away from our values.
What I learned is that I need to have a plan in place to manage the drift, and be diligent in following
through. The apostle Paul speaks to the results of a people who drift away. It does not happen over
night, it is not a quick or sudden change it is a slow movement away from the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Verse 21 “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him.” The
first indicator of drifting away begins with self focus (glorification) and entitlement (thanklessness).
Thank you Lord for the gift of your Holy Spirit who brings to light the things in our life where we begin
to drift away. The light of His word shines brightly on the drift. My prayer is that the Holy Spirit would
continue to reveal these challenging times that on the surface look harmless and calm, but can lull us
into a pattern of drifting away.
Romans 1:18-24
“18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of
people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to
them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible
qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what
has been made, so that people are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their
thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise,
they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a
mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the
degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and
worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen."