Life is full of distractions. There’s always something to be done around the house. If you have children, they bring their own sets of distractions. Social media and a 24 hour news cycle do nothing to quiet the noise of our everyday lives. Chores, to-do lists, responsibilities at work and home, church requirements, volunteer time, etc. make it hard to focus on much of anything. We all suffer a bit from this distraction, trying to multi-task. There is a pressure to do more and more and more. We get to the point where we are doing a lot of things, but we’re not doing any of them well. In the midst of all this chaos, where is our focus?
Webster’s Dictionary defines focus as: a center of activity, attraction, or attention; a point of concentration; emphasis; direction; and a state or condition permitting clear perception or understanding. I particularly like the last definition: a state or condition permitting clear perception or understanding. Often in life, I feel like this is what I lack most. It’s difficult to see where I am and where I’m going. I often wish I understood what was happening around me and where it was leading me. Things are moving by me so fast, that everything is blurred. I can’t see anything clearly.
Something is going to have our focus. In the middle of a crisis, our focus is on the problem. That makes sense. I mean the problem is right in front of our face after all. The only problem with focusing on the problem is that we often can’t see any kind of solution. Whatever it is we are focused on becomes bigger, clearer, more important. When our focus is on a problem, that problem–no matter how big or small it really is–becomes bigger than reality. It’s the only thing we can see.
Focusing on our problems does two things:
1) It can easily become overwhelming. Focusing on our problems makes them larger than life. We feel our own abilities and resources shrink in comparison. Suddenly, we just don’t feel we can manage. The problem takes on mythic proportions in relation to our resources. The truth is that God is bigger. With our focus off of God and onto our problems, all we see is our lack. Exodus 3 tells the story of Moses and the burning bush. Moses was raised in the palace of Pharoah.
He was well educated. He had great ability and leadership potential, but after killing an Egyptian Moses traded in his royal lifestyle for the life of a fugitive shepherd in the land of Midian. When God approached Moses and revealed His plans for Moses to deliver the entire nation of Israel from oppression and slavery, Moses’ focus was on the problem. How was an 80 year old man who had spent the last 40 years as a shepherd in the wilderness of Midian going to overthrow Pharoah and rescue Israel? Why would anyone listen to him? He didn’t have prestige or power anymore. He even went so far as to point out that he had a speech impediment and couldn’t possibly even speak to Pharoah in a persuasive way. Moses’ focus was on his lack. Compared to the problem, his resources were small and limited and wholely inadequate.
But God told Moses to change his focus. Notice verse 12: “And God said, ‘I will be with you'”…. I will be with you. Don’t look at YOUR resources compared to the size of the problem. Look at MINE. When our focus shifts from the size of the problem to the size of our God, suddenly things fall into place. We come into focus. We begin to see God more clearly. God becomes bigger. The problem becomes small and blurry compared with the majesty and power of an almighty God!
2) It leads to feelings of depression. When all we see is our lack or our faults, we lose faith. We don’t feel strong or courageous. Instead we feel worthless, inadequate, unprepared, and useless. We begin to lose hope that things will change because our focus is on our circumstance and on our feelings, and those circumstances and feelings aren’t saying good things. Psalm 42 illustrates this best. It is believed to be a psalm written by David, possibly during his flight from Absalom.
Absalom was David’s son. He was a favorite and favored among the people. For whatever reason, Absalom became critical of David’s reign. His focus seemed to be on the inadequacies of David’s system of justice. Eventually, Absalom gained the hearts of the people and led a revolt against David. David was forced to flee. He was at a low point in his reign. He was far from Jerusalem, unable to worship God in the house of worship. He wasn’t able to participate in the rites of worship. Things were going crazy around him. His focus was on the problem.
Psalm 42 says, “My tears have been my food day and night.” David is deeply depressed. He describes his soul as being downcast. Here again, God prompts David to change his focus. David ends this psalm with the assertion that he will put his trust in God, that he will praise God yet again. David shifts his focus from the depression of his soul and the discouraging circumstances of his condition to the things God has done for him in the past. Looking at the wonders God has done for him in the past, David remembers God. He sees clearly that God’s love has been with him all this time.
Let’s look again at what God says to Moses in Exodus 3. This time in verse 14. This is the first time that God introduces Himself by name, and the name He uses is “I AM.” I AM…what a powerful statement. God is saying, “What do you need me to be Moses? What is it you lack in this situation? Do you lack eloquence? Ability? Strength? Power? Charisma? Whatever it is you lack is found in me.” The key here is knowing who God is–seeing the reality of God clearly–and understanding God’s identity. We can only do this when our focus is on God. When we look at God instead of our circumstances, when we listen to His voice instead of the noise of our lives, we get to that place of clear vision and understanding. We begin to see Truth. We begin to see Reality. God’s Truth and Reality is often different from our own. Insurmountable obstacles are anthills to God, and when our focus is on God suddenly those obstacles don’t look so insurmountable. We can’t even see them compared to God. They fade into the background. They lose importance.
So where is your focus? Is it on your circumstance? Is it caught up in distractions? Or is it on God?
A Beautiful Mess 