What captures my focus will rule my life.
My youngest son started something new this year. His second favorite sport, after football, is summer baseball. He usually plays third base. This year he added the position of pitcher to his resume. While watching his games I recalled the wisdom that my father gave me during my little league years. When pitching his advice was always about “focus”, that where your eyes were focused is where you would throw the ball.
This idea of “focus” applies to many areas of my life; where I focus is where I tend to go. A lack of focus affects my driving, like drifting off the road while trying to read a sign. When I am fixated on the negative aspects of a relationship I tend to see only the faults in another. When I am discouraged life appears hopeless. What I focus on will rule the moment. This even applies to my spiritual life.
I am “a sinner saved by grace”. This is my history. I was forever separated from God, trapped by the sinful nature that is an inheritance from those that have gone before me. But contrary to what my life should have been I received Christ’s gift of grace, mercy, and redemption, transforming me into a saint. This is what characterizes my life now.
I continue to fall short of what God calls me to, which emphasizes the “sinner” part of my past. However, if this is my focus that is what I will constantly see. If I am destined to focus on my failures I will continue to be drawn to that path and will continue to struggle with overcoming my sin. I am discovering that my focus needs to be on Jesus. If I truly want to cooperate with God’s transformation process I need to shift my focus from my history of sinfulness to my progress toward sainthood.
If my life is consumed with walking in the direction I need to go my faults from the past have less control and influence. I should learn from my past but not allow it to direct the focus of my future.
