5 Things That Can Cause You to Drift Away

“We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away” (Hebrews 2:1).

Years ago, I heard the story of a man who went to the beach with his family. He decided to bring a float with him because he wanted to lay on the water and enjoy the summer day at the beach. He proceeded to enter the water, lay on his float, and relax. This was so relaxing that he lost track of time. After a while, he decided it was time for him to get out and he made his way to the shore of the beach. When he got out of the boat, he was shocked because he couldn’t find his family. He went back to the place he left them when he entered the water, and they were not there. A small sense of panic set in as he wondered what happened to his family. As he began to look around, he noticed everything looked a little different from the place he had entered the water. When he finally calmed down, he realized he was not in the same place and had drifted about a mile down the beach without even realizing it.

My friends, this is the danger of drifting.

In Hebrews we are confronted with this verse warning us about the danger of drifting away. To drift means to be carried along by currents of water or air, or by the force of circumstance. It can also mean to wander aimlessly. If we are being warned about drifting, then what are the reasons we may be prone to drift in the first place? I want to share with you five reasons why you can possibly drift.

1. Fatigue

Let’s face it, walking the walk of faith is not easy. You are constantly facing battles on every side. On one side you are fighting your flesh. On another side you are fighting the enemy. In addition to that you feel the obligation to devote yourself to the work of the Lord. To top it off we haven’t even addressed the other parts of your life such as having a job, taking care of family, and the myriad number of tasks we must accomplish. I am getting fatigued just thinking about it all.

The bottom line is, all of this can wear you out and make you tired. When fatigue sets in you lose your will to continue the fight. There is an old expression in sports, “Fatigue makes cowards of us all.” When fatigue sets in, even though your intentions are good you can lose your will to fight. When this happens, you have now become a candidate for drifting.

2. Busyness

If there is one thing, we can say about living in the 21^st century, it’s that life is coming at us at a frantic pace, and it never stops. There is less separation in our lives and boundaries are getting more and more blurred. There was a time when businesses were closed on Sundays and holidays. Now it is rare to ever find a day where businesses are closed, even on major holidays.

The covid transition from being office-based workers to being remote workers with home as our office, has furthered blurred these lines. Many people are discovering one of the biggest challenges of working from home is the risk to always be working. How many of you find yourself working later and longer hours because there is no office to leave it behind? Let’s not forget we still need to fit in time with Jesus, time with family, and any other obligations you have outside of work.

When you add up all these things, it creates a high level of busyness in our lives. Busyness can be dangerous and if you engage in it too long, don’t be surprised if drifting follows. When you are too busy, you have created a scenario that invites drifting, and like my beach guy earlier, many times you don’t even know.

3. Sin

The reason sin can cause you to drift is because of the nature of sin itself. Sin doesn’t yank at you, sin gently pulls you. I heard someone say that Satan is not trying to get you to move a foot off track, he just wants you to move one inch. When you move a foot, you recognize that easily, but when you move an inch it is harder to detect. Over time however those inches add up and they become feet. This is how sin works.

A classic example is people who fall into sexual sin, especially adultery. Most people don’t just wake up one morning and say I am going to go out and commit adultery today. That would be like moving a foot. Adultery doesn’t happen in feet, it happens in inches. It may even start innocently, but eventually you end up in the place you don’t want to be. This is the nature of all sin. You move inch by inch until you eventually drift away.

“Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death” (James 1:15).

4. Distractions

Are you aware of how many things are fighting for your attention these days? Most of us walk around with the biggest attention grabber of all time – the smartphone. I recently took the train into the city. Because I live in the suburbs and work from home, I don’t commute to work. As I was on the train, I purposely turned off my phone so I could enjoy the ride, and I happened to casually look around at the people on the train. Just about every single one had their eyes glued to their phone. They were not paying attention to what was going on around them. There was little to no interaction, and it was as if every person was in their own personal bubble. I am sure you can relate.

What’s fascinating about our phones is even if you aren’t looking at them, they still have a way of getting your attention and reminding you that you need to focus on them. We call these notifications. Have you ever realized how difficult it is to concentrate once you hear a notification go off on your phone? Your brain begins to wonder who is reaching out to me and what is going on. In some cases, your anxiety increases as you think about what you could be missing.

These are all distractions, and I am only talking about the distraction of your phone. Forget about the distraction of media, politics, sports, entertainment, family, and all the other things that are fighting for your focus. These things are designed to grab your attention. While they are not necessarily bad or sinful, they can still have the same effect and cause you to drift away.

5. Disappointment

The last item to discuss is disappointment. If you live long enough, you will experience disappointment. It is inevitable. Sometimes as parents we attempt to shield our children from experiencing disappointment, especially if we experienced it ourselves as a child. I don’t know if that is healthy or unhealthy, but I do know we will face disappointment in this life. Maybe it is wiser to allow our children to experience it so they can learn how to deal with it. Because it is inevitable learning how to deal with disappointment will be critical to you not drifting away. We need to face the facts that life will not always go the way you desire.

However, as Christians we must also recognize we have a promise that God will take all the things that happen in our lives and work them for our good. (Rom. 8:28). Nevertheless, this does not prevent the disappointment from occurring. When disappointment sets in, it brings along with it the possibility of drifting and you must guard against this.

Conclusion

I hope you recognize the impact these things can cause in your life and how dangerous they can be. If you dwell in them too long, it will cause you to drift away. However, there are things you can do to protect yourself from drifting. For space’s sake I can’t include those things here, so I encourage you to read 5 Ways to Protect Yourself from Drifting. In the meantime, pay careful attention so you do not drift away.

Clarence L. Haynes Jr. is a speaker, Bible teacher, and co-founder of The Bible Study Club. He is the author of The Pursuit of Purpose which will help you understand how God leads you into his will. His most recent book is The Pursuit of Victory: How To Conquer Your Greatest Challenges and Win In Your Christian Life. This book will teach you how to put the pieces together so you can live a victorious Christian life and finally become the man or woman of God that you truly desire to be. Clarence is also committed to helping 10,000 people learn how to study the Bible and has just released his first Bible study course called Bible Study Basics. To learn more about his ministry please visit clarencehaynes.com.