Focus!

“My son, do not lose sight of these – keep sound wisdom and discretion,”
-Proverbs 3:21

When I was newly graduated from college, I was having trouble finding a job. There were a lot of reasons for that. The job market in the Houston area was not great at that time; there were quite a few highly qualified people looking for work. Me on the other hand – not really qualified for much. I also really didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t know where to look, and I was struggling just looking for something I could do.

But the last reason was something very simple: I wasn’t really focusing on it. Not completely. I’d shoot out five or so résumés a day, then I’d move on to other things.

It strikes me that our Christian life can often be like that. We do our prayers in the morning and evening, we read so many chapters of the Bible a day, maybe we have a devotional. But then we’re done (if we even do that much!).

What’s funny is that then we start getting frustrated with how our lives are going. We don’t feel connected with God, and a lot of times we blame Him for it. We walk ourselves right into bad situations and then ask our friends to pray about the outcome.

I do the same thing. There are a hundred things in my day that occupy my time. A lot of them are good things, like a job. Some of them aren’t so great. I sometimes get very frustrated at myself when I lose sight on God.

We’ve all those really foolish moments, haven’t we? Those times where we look back and think, “Wow, that was a really bad decision,” or, “I really spent my time worrying about that?” We spend most of our lives thinking about things and doing things that matter not one bit in the long run. Even a year, a month, a day, or even an hour later, we are disappointed in ourselves for wasting the time.

In my home, I waste so much time on seeking entertainment, on worrying about tomorrow, on trying to make everything perfect when it doesn’t need to be. And at the end of the day, I wonder how much of it has made me grow, or made my family stronger.

When I was looking for my first job, I spent quite a bit of time playing video games or reading silly books. I really don’t remember much of the details of what I was doing. It didn’t matter. What do I do now that won’t matter? Play Free Cell? Get upset with some slight event doesn’t go my way? Watch dull videos online?

Some of the things I do are harmless, but not helpful. Some of them are harmful. In either case, I’m chasing after something I think at the time is important enough, but ultimately it is not.

I am not saying that we should never have fun. Far from it! There is a time for rest, but I’m asking about our focus. I think most of the time we are like Peter, James, and John in the garden, and we keep falling asleep when Jesus has asked us to do something else.

Our focus should ever be on Him, for it is He who can deliver us from our pettiness and pride. We spend our lives running from one idea that will rescue us to another, but it is Jesus who is the way, truth, and life. And yet, we cannot seem to focus on He who can save us.