Adjusting the Focus

  Being in a house with several people who need glasses, I can tell you that life gets harder when things are out of focus, but in a world where people are often times brushed aside for the sake of "focus" it almost seems that focus is the opposite of awareness and compassion. I never want to be unaware or cold hearted,and I am sure that these qualities are not Godly. Jesus said to rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn. There has to be a balance between focusing in on a thing to do your best and being aware of the rest of humanity.  It may seem contradictory, but Jesus also said to a desciple who wanted to return home to bury a relative to let the dead bury the dead.  So is this the Lord speaking out of both sides of his mouth or is there something that we are missing?  The connector for me is when it says in Ecclesiastes 3:1 "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven" Focus doesn't mean not having time for anyone else and it doesn't mean letting other responsibilities languish.  True Godly focus means clarity with a centered purpose.  That means that I look to Jesus while still seeing the person in need next to me. It means running a ministry affectively while still making the right amount of time to minister to my family. It means approaching political conflicts remembering that the goal is to do well by everyone and not just ourselves.  It means caring about the path just as much as the destination.  True focus is seeing the full picture of our lives and how it all fits together for a goal.  If the goal is out of focus than the rest of the picture doesn't make any sense.  When we adjust our focus it should be from the goal out.  Tunnel vision is too narrow and is seceptible to being blindsided and derailed just as much as being overwhelmed by a view without any reference point.  My reference point is the cross, the love of Jesus for every single person on this earth.  Whenever I seem to lose my focus and my way I look to my reference point.  Thank God for Jesus.  If it weren't for him I might have been moving toward a goal that wouldn't mean much. When we die we don't take anything with us to eternity, but our works for God.  The money goes somewhere else, the spouse at death parts, children create their own lives as does everyone else we ever knew. In the end all we have is who we were to other people and to God for real.  All the fakeness and the putting on of aires will not stand up to God's judgement.  God will know if we truly accepted Jesus into our hearts, and God will know every single thing that we ever did and our intentions.  We can't hide anything from God and we can't save ourselves by building our businesses and making lots of money or writing the most intriguing stories or having the most babies or having the best looking bodies.  We can't excuse our lives of empty promises to God and heartless prayers by saying we were busy. Busy doing what?  We are here for God's purposes not to make life the greatest for ourselves and leave great stories of our lives.  The story of Jesus is the most important story that anyone could ever tell and if we mistakenly focus on ourselves rather than on Jesus than we need to adjust our focus because in the end none of the other things will matter.  Only what we do for Christ will last.  Focus on that, and know that as we submit our goals to God that he will prosper us in more ways than we could ever prosper ourselves.  Love God, love people, do good. Amen.