"If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell." (Matt 5:29 NIV)

I used to be a spy in disguise. Yes, I did work for the Secret Forces of my country, and I was very successful at it! So successful, in fact, that it didn't take me long to be promoted to captain. Then I was in charge of training others in the secrets of my trade. I was also a key intellectual force for my army. With the enemies of my king continually bombarding my country, they relied heavily on my expertise!

I'm sure that in time, I would have made general. Instead, when high school loomed on the horizon, I was forced to abandon my post. All those missed opportunities!

Back in those days, one of my favourite TV shows was Mission Impossible. With every mission presented ending favourably, I had no choice but to join the ranks of such an elite force! And with the help of a bit of yarn and scotch tape, I quickly transformed my grandmother's garage as a place perfect for infiltrating and retrieving important secret documents. With invisible laser beams bouncing from one garage wall to another (strings of yarn attached with tape), in all possible directions, it became impossible for anyone except the most agile and dexterous to pass. If these "laser beams" came in contact with human flesh, they triggered alarms that would call in the most elite of the foreign security forces to surround and arrest the intruder.

My trainee was my cousin, and together we learned how to slither like snakes underneath the low beams and jump over the medium beams. While high beams gave us the most challenge, we managed to hoist each other over even these! No wonder I was so quickly promoted to captain!

I also loved war movies and John Wayne was my hero. Because of him, I saved my money and bought an army of tin soldiers. These were hidden in every corner of my bedroom. With rubber bands and a ruler, my cousin and I managed to eliminate the enemy completely! No wonder we were so loved by our fellow Belgian citizens!

But when the added challenges of high school became a reality, my weekends and evenings were all stolen away by the enemy called "homework", and it all ended. Whoever said that high school was fun didn't realize how much of my secret life it stole!

It's amazing how much what we see influences what we do and think! I generally tend to try and stay away from anyone who is negative. I have noticed that even though I enter the school building bright and cheerful every morning, if I speak with someone negative, I enter my classroom in a foul mood. How come? Because, just like I did as a child, I let what I see and hear influence my mood and my thoughts!

Isn't it interesting that the first temptation to sin came through the visual sense? "When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it." (Gen 3:6 NIV)

How different our lives would become if instead of concentrating our attention on silly, immature, worldly lusts, we would focus on Jesus. Transformation would be immediate, and soon our thoughts, our moods and our actions would reflect the One we are focusing on!

"Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed - that exhilarating finish in and with God - he could put up with anything along the way: cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!" (Heb 12:2-3 The Message)

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind . Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will." (Rom 12:2 NIV)

May Jesus become our obsession! May heaven become real to us! May we learn to fix our eyes on the Only One who has our best interest at heart! Only then will we make a real difference in this world! May our secret mission be to imitate Jesus in everything we say, think and do!

"And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him." (2 Cor 3:18 The Message)

P. S. Would you happen to know where I can find tin soldiers?

Rob Chaffart