Verse of the Day for January 14

The question in this verse is asked by someone young enough to have a lot of life in front of him and honest enough to know he cannot navigate it on instinct.

Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? The answer given is unglamorous: by taking heed thereto according to thy word.

Taking heed is a watchman word. It means paying attention on purpose, keeping your eye on something that would drift if you stopped looking.

Notice what the answer is not. It is not a single decisive experience, or a feeling, or a resolve made in a hard moment. It is sustained attention to a text.

Two verses later he adds the practice that makes it possible: thy word have I hid in mine heart. Hidden, in advance, before it was needed. You cannot take heed to something you have not stored.

A life does not usually go wrong at a crossroads. It drifts, in small increments, in the direction nobody was watching.

Taking heed is simply the decision to keep looking.