FOCUS

Focus is important in many areas of life and not just any focus will do.

Have you ever looked at something for so long that your eyes became out of focus? The object of interest looked blurrier rather than clearer. It is much the same way with life. When we hyperfocus on a problem, we cannot see a solution because our view is blurred. I found this true for myself in several areas. Our family has had some issues with finances over the years. Some times I find myself worrying that I'll never get to do the things I want to in the future because I'm barely surviving now. Even at my age, I still have a long list of dreams I want to fulfill; nevertheless, time, money and other distractions take my focus away from the hope of ever achieving them because I am hyper-focused on the problem hindering me. In those instances, if I look away for a while and then back, I find refreshment and can once again look with untainted vision.

For the Christian, the real focal point is Christ. This being said, we have a unique perspective; we can look in the direction of our problems with Him in the center of it all and the problem on the outskirts. Talk about hope!

There is yet another situation where focus is skewed--when we look at the wrong thing. We want to head in one direction while looking in the opposite. One of my kids was famous for this when he first came to us. We signed him up for community soccer and noticed that he ran all over the soccer field in the opposite direction of the ball! On he went, yacking, giggling and then stopping with his back to the ball! WHACK! The ball would smack into the back of his head and send him skidding across the grass, with nose planted deeply in the wet sod.

I've done a bit of this myself lately. Facebook can be a great communication tool but also a big distraction. From childhood, I've felt a call on my life to do certain things. Loving and communicating with people is part of that and Facebook can be a wonderful avenue to show God's love. It can also be a huge time waster.

I don't know if I will totally be able to break my addiction to reading humerous quips and updates on my friends several times a day but one thing I do know is that I need to re-evaluate whether I am making the most fruitful use of my time when I am on there. Again, I'm not knocking the need for levity/ entertainment. Nor am I saying it is a waste of time to converse, even in the simplest forms like Facebook or Chat programs. What I do feel is the need to acknowledge where my focus should be and keep that a priority.

Other things can be distractions: housework, chores, bills, blogging, meetings and activities (yes, even church) as well as our goals themselves. We must discern what is our calling and what is fluff. We must know where we are to engage and where to disengage, searching until we look at life like one peereing through an opera glass, totally focused on where we need to be and when. Personally, the prayer on my lips is "Let me see this world as though I were looking through Your eyes, Lord." Often, my eyes miss that vision.

In short, Christians are called to run a race...AND WIN IT! That can't be done while keeping one's eyes focused only on the sidelines. The goal or goals are before us. Let's keep them in focus!

Simple Things

• Everything is simpler than you think, and yet more complex than you can imagine. Author unknown.
• "All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope". Winston Churchill
• "Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify, simplify! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail." Henry David Thoreau
• "We strive for wisdom but in our quest we lose our ability to find common sense." BeckyJoie

It tickles the funny bone of our intellect when we ace an IQ test, figure out a puzzle or riddle or solve a problem that has stumped others. We pat ourselves on the back and yes, I must concede that sometimes it is good to receive accolades for our skills and hard work. But somehow in life, most of the human race has managed to turn a two-mile trek into a lifetime obstacle course.

Ok, BeckyJoie, stop speaking in code and tell us what you really want to say.

I'm just sitting here pondering the busyness of life, wondering how when I sit and number the tasks at hand, How did I do all this in one day? or else: How did these few tasks take all day to accomplish?

In my classroom, none of the toddlers sit around and scratch their chins, wondering how they are going to get through the day. Instead, you will see them laughing with each other, pointing at everyday objects that we, the average adults, fail to notice. We have forgotten the basics, the beautiful and the simple things that remind us there is life beyond ourselves and that this life is all new and wonderful everyday.

When was the last time you heard a song bird in a tree, a new insect species on the window, how the bubbles in the sink fizzle and expand after you wash your hands?

Does this sound too silly for you?

Stop sometime and listen to toddlers in the mall or the grocery. Note their appreciation for the world around them. They see things we don't and don't see things we see.

Many adults look through the microscope at that loud, obnoxious "brat" disturbing their perfect circle of peaceful air. Some feel that children are a hindrance to life and wish to eliminate all contact with the "vermin".

Others take the time to learn from the simplicity of a child's outlook. The latter would seem the wise choice to me.

It is true that a child's vision is at times skewed by Toddler rule #1. What's mine is mine and what's yours is mine.

While a child can be somewhat self-centered at times, most often their worldview is simple, believing, grateful, cheerful and amazed. They are not global. They are living life and lovin' it in the minute.

Of course, they have no worries nor concept of the future but somehow they make it there none-the-worse for their lack of anxiety over it.

As adults, we have learned that life is not about having fun anymore... and, though we were created with a need for imagination, we forget to find adult ways of satisfying that need. We fill our calendars with appointments, work, chores, meetings, and other various duties, patting ourselves on the back when we've earned another ulcer or panic attack for being such "productive" members of society. Somehow we manage to stop living life and let life live us through all of it's demands. We forget that when this earth that we know was formed, the intention was in part that the inhabitants enjoy living there.

To transliterate the quote of the wisest man who ever lived on earth: The birds of the air don't worry about their next meal or what color their feathers are. They instinctively know they will find what they need and be well-kept. Why should we, humans with God-given abilities and talents fret our lives away with the details?

I have to challenge the famous saying, "Stop and take time to smell the roses". It seems many of the roses have been trampled on by the stampede of a busy society which prides itself in how many square feet it has covered in it's quest for perfection. There is nothing wrong with accomplishments and goals. Every human being should strive for excellence, but in that journey, simplicity must be the stepping stone over which we walk.

The challenge for the next week is this:Simplify, Simplify, Simplify. Do you think we will figure out how to preform such a complex task ?