So this post is a bit random, but I think it's gonna make at least a little bit of sense. I have discovered as I've grown older that I have a hard time staying focused. And not just in any particular situation... Need some examples? Okay sure, I'm glad you asked.
Well, first of all, there's the social ADD I have (thanks for the term, Liza!) When I get around a lot of people I can get off topic SOO easily, and I'm one of the most easily distracted people I know (if you've spent any time with me, you're nodding your head right now). I even do it when I'm teaching. I'll forget where I was in conversation, forget the end of a story or joke! It's crazy! It's like I'm focused one minute and all of a sudden, I'm not.
Need another example? Okay. How about starting things, like crafts, projects, books, movies, etc... but never finishing them? I'm focused on them for some amount of time but then I get distracted or busy with something else, and my focus shifts! I have piles, mounds, boxes full of unfinished projects and books from my distracted past...
Then there's spiritually! I'm sure we can all relate to this at one time or another, but I'll have a day, a week, a month, where I'm really focused on the Lord every day, spending time with Him, growing in my relationship, and then I lose the focus and get distracted by the busyness of life, by other things, other people... I feel bad, because Jesus is the greatest thing in the universe! How on EARTH could I think about ANYTHING else above Him?? Because I'm still trapped in a human body and I think with a sinful, human brain. It's going to happen, but should it happen so much? Isn't there more than just being focused for a while, and then not focused for the next while?
I think of a few verses, like Colossians 3:1-3, "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God." Set your hearts, set your minds. A.k.a., FOCUS.
Here's another one, a very powerful scripture for me, Philippians 4:8, "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." FOCUS.
I often think about losing my spiritual just like when I get distracted in a group of people - something catches my eye and I turn away, mentally, emotionally, even physically, and I am no longer looking at or focusing on, the person I was talking to, or the thing I was doing, or GOD. But in college, I heard (or read, I can't remember, but Bethany I'm associating you with it!)
Remember the movie, Apollo 13? These guys went on a mission to the moon but they never made it due to a malfunction with their ship ("Houston, we have a problem.") At one point they are trying to navigate themselves and because their power is so low, they can't turn any systems on to help navigate. So someone figures out (Houston or the crew) that if they can just keep Earth in the little triangular window of the ship, they will be on track. So they fight to keep the Earth in the window. Due to natural forces like gravity, turbulance, etc, they have a hard time keeping the Earth in the window - it slips, it moves, they struggle, but eventually, Earth gets back in that window.
It's such a beautiful analogy of our relationship with Christ. Most of the time, we aren't jumping out of the spaceship, we aren't turning around to head back to our doom, we haven't fallen asleep in the hull of the ship and ignored any need to do anything, no... we just have to work at keeping the Earth in the window. Or in this case, keeping the Cross at the forefront of everything we think, see, and do. When it slips, it is not because we stink at being Christians.. it's because natural forces are pulling on us!
Distraction happens. Don't beat yourself up. Just get Earth back in the window and "set your mind on things above."
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