Focus

by Pastor Timothy Fortune

I remember driving down the interstate in Georgia and on both sides of the road for several miles were these huge billboards. My eyes were constantly being pulled toward the billboards. I was losing focus on driving and my destination. By reminding myself that my task at hand was to drive us to our destination I regained focus and we arrived safely.

Everyday we have distractions that come into our lives. Things that want to pull our focus away from our destination and what we are called to accomplish. Losing focus is a lot like running on a treadmill; you wear yourself out but you don’t go anywhere. That is the aim of distractions and interruptions. What you have to do is recognize them when they come and deal with them.

A liberating fact is that you are not called to do everything for everybody. Each of us has certain gifts and talents that were given to us by God. We need to focus on them and put our energy into using them to the best of our ability. Distractions come to stop you or slow you down. Nehemiah was called to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. After construction began on the wall the enemy threatened to attack Jerusalem and create confusion. So Nehemiah armed the workers with weapons. In one hand they carried a tool and in the other a weapon. Then these two guys sent messages to Nehemiah that they wanted to meet with him. Nehemiah replied, “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down.” So then they told him someone was coming to kill him, and he replied, “Should such a man as I flee?” Nehemiah’s strong focus and not allowing himself to be distracted kept everyone on task and the wall was completed.

By staying focused you can unclutter your life. Instead of wasting time avoiding something that must be done, just do it. By doing this you will save yourself time and energy; time and energy which can be applied to another part of your life, like spending time with your family. Just think about this, if you spend 3 hours a day watching television, that is 1095 hours in a year. This equates to a little over 45 days a year; if instead, you reduced your TV watching by an hour per day, you could add one hour of quality time with your family. Just think how much smoother your family would interact if you gave them an extra hour of uninterrupted time? Then, reduce the TV time another hour and you could spend an hour reading about the industry you work in. By doing this alone you would increase your expertise in your field of work, which would increase your value to that company. You would be adding a month back to your life each year by taking these two actions alone. These are only two examples.....think about how you could apply this life lesson on spending your time wisely. Could you read your Bible more....get involved in your church or civic organization as a volunteer...or meet some other need that the Lord would lead you to meet by wiser use of your time?

As you go through this day don’t allow yourself to be sidetracked by distractions. Stay focused and be about the Fathers business.