Spring - the season of graduations.....At one such ceremony at my elementary school recently, I was part of the audience at a fifth-grade awards ceremony. As a teacher, I was sitting among a large group of parents, grandparents, and other well-wishers. The students sat in a section of seats in front of us, but as each name was called for an award, the child would stand, turn, and face the adults. At one point, the entire class stood and faced us to sing a song they had practiced. As the song went on I saw a sea of cell phones rise in front of my eyes. I was looking at the entire class of about 80 children singing in unison, but the image on each of those cellphone screens was very different. Every picture was centered on a different child. No two people in that room saw that scene the same way, because their attention was centered on someone they loved.
That's how life works. All of us have our attention centered on the things that mean the most to us. We spend our time, energy, money, attention, and affection on what we deem to be most important. As I noticed those screens across the room all focused on a specific someone, God seemed to be asking me where the attention in my life was focused. Yes, it's good and right to love people - to be focused on your family members and their well-being, but the very center of our lives needs to be our relationship with God. Without the strength, love, and wisdom He gives us, we can't properly love others anyway.
Matthew 6:33 says, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you".
What does that actually mean? How can we work full-time jobs, manage households, interact with people, care for children, and still be putting God first in our lives? Not many of us can be the kind of person that can just lock ourselves in a room and pray and study for hours on end.
When I looked up the definition of focus, it gave me a little clarity about how this is even possible. One of the meanings is "a point at which rays (as of light, heat, or sound) converge or from which they diverge or appear to diverge".
To me, all the different things that we juggle in life are like the rays of the sun. If all we do is first rooted in our relationship with God, there is life in those divergent things, just like the warmth of each ray of the sun contributes to the growth of plants which in turn provide food for creatures on the earth. Likewise, if we do those things in love and obedience to the various calls that are on our lives, we do them as unto the Lord and those acts converge back to Him as acts of praise. Yes, Bible study and prayer are necessary to develop that intimacy with God and learn to hear and recognize His voice, but the daily living of our lives, keeping Him in mind as we do all the things we do is the way we focus and keep Him in the center.
Romans 11:36 says, "For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen".
It's all about Him anyway. He is the center. Where is your focus?
No comments:
Post a Comment