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"Since there are so many faithful people in the stands, let us run our race well, looking to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.... Consider him... lest you get tired and your mind gets weak" (Hebrews 12: 1-3). This comment from Paul comes immediately after the faith chapter, so the "faithful people in the stands" are the people cited in Hebrews 11 with a "By faith so-and-so did such-and-such."

I used to puzzle in my bed at night just how to "look to Jesus." I wanted to do it. I would shut my eyes tight (that’s how you pray, right), or peer through the dark, or decide that tomorrow I would lie on my back looking up far up into the sky for a long time. For all my efforts, I couldn’t see what I was sure was there, my Jesus.

Then I got a hint: Faith is seeing in the mind! That’s why "faith is the evidence of things not seen otherwise" (Hebrews 11:1).

That’s why Paul could say of people with faith, "Not having received the things promised, they saw them and were persuaded and embraced them" (Hebrews 11:13).

"Reckon yourself dead to sin and alive to God. . . . Don’t just go on being like everything around you, but be changed by having your mind changed" (Romans 6:11: 12:2).

Apparently I can choose how I think and what will occupy my mind. "Consider him (who is the author and finisher of our faith) so you won’t get tired and your mind get weak" (Hebrews 12:1-3).