had more than one hundred published decisions that have shaped the laws
on criminal justice and victims’ rights, affecting millions of people.
Karl’s life is not unlike the story of a young boy with a few fish and
some bread. Jesus tells us to bring what we have to Him, and He will
make something amazing out of it. Karl just keeps bringing what he’s got
to Jesus. I think we should do the same; just keep bringing whatever you
have to God and let Him decide what He’ll do with it.
When I think about Karl’s fateful dive, I think about how his body
followed his head. He looked down to wave at the girls, and his body
went where his eyes were looking. This is how we’re all wired. Where we
turn our heads is where we’ll land with our lives. It happens all the time
with careers or relationships or possessions. It doesn’t matter whether it’s
comparison or distraction or escape that turns our heads—what we look
at will be the difference between a great dive and a big disaster. Most of
us won’t break our necks when we look or leap wrong, but we may do
something equally crippling in a different way.
We need to be careful where our minds dwell. Many of us dwell on
what other people are thinking of us. It’s easy to do. But we can be so
busy trying to get the approval of others that we forget who Jesus said we
are. Here’s the problem: when we’re busy getting our validation from the
people around us, we stop looking for it from God. You’ll know this is
happening to you when you go with what’s popular rather than what’s
eternal, when you settle for what feels good right now rather than opting
for what will make a good and lasting impact a decade from now. If we
let our heads turn toward the shallow waters offered by wrong
relationships, the rest of our lives will follow where our heads have gone.
When we do, we’ll crater instead of create, and we’ll drown in the places
where we ought to be swimming.