Beyond Common Sense

Where is your focus?  We’d all like to say that we are focused on Jesus Christ, but if  we are honest and check our focus barometer, we will see that there are MANY other items that take our focus away from the Master.   Does the object of our focus matter?

Many of you may have used Lamaze Breathing Techniques during birth labor.  The whole concept centers around focusing on something other than the labor pains.  Did it work?  (I can’t help you there – I had three Cesarean sections!)

You’ve probably heard the illustration of the farmer who focuses on a tree or post while plowing to keep the row straight.  He often must look back at the plow, and if he doesn’t have a fixed spot at which to refocus his aim, the row will veer sideways.  I’ve never plowed a field, but I have planted a garden.  I remember my parents driving in a stick with a string attached to it into one side of the garden, and then pulling it taut to the other end.  Mom would then keep her hoe beneath the line, and: Voila! a straight row.  Sad to say, at times, I’ve been lazy and have skipped this step in gardening.  Then, for the rest of the summer, I must look out upon crooked rows!  Last year, I not only used the line, but also measured between each row to make sure that I had enough room between rows for the tiller.  What a work of art!!  What pleasure to see those straight even rows; AND, it saved me a lot of work to be able to use the tiller later into the season.

So, where is your focus?  Is it on the circumstances in which our dear Lord has placed you to strengthen you and mold you into His image?  Is it on the failures of a loved one or perhaps your own failures?  Are you focusing on the impossible or the God of the impossible?

Our focus makes ALL the difference; and like that farmer who needs to turn around and check on the plow, we need to check our progress but then swing our focus ASAP back to the rock!

I’m sure many of the Israelites saw what Achan saw in the city of Jericho, but Achan couldn’t stop focusing on all those riches.  Think of it!  These men had been living in a desert on manna, wearing the same clothes for the past forty years!  Now, there at their fingertips were all the riches of Jericho! Achan confesses, “When I saw among the spoils …then I coveted them, and took them.” (Josh 7:21)  Wrong focus!  Think of what his wrong focus cost him: the lives of his wife and children!  Sad to say, our wrong focus may cost us the same consequence!

“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.“