focus on the goal

Single-Minded Focus

Posted on by Betsy

Have you or someone you know ever owned a Labrador Retriever? Labs are known for their fierce loyalty to their owners, for being intelligent, and for their high energy. According to the American Kennel Club, “The sweet-faced, lovable Labrador Retriever is one of America’s most popular dog breeds, year after year. Labs are friendly, outgoing, and high-spirited companions who have more than enough affection to go around for a family looking for a medium-to-large dog.”

For 15 years my husband and I were the happy owners of a yellow lab named Georgia, who died about a year and a half ago. As I read the AKC’s list of lab characteristics, I realized that they left out one very important one characteristic: Labs are incredibly single-minded. When Georgia decided that it was dinner time, usually at 6 PM on the dot, she would get up from her nap and go and stick her head on Kenn’s leg and whine and wag until he got up and fed her. Her ability to stare you down was legendary! This was challenging every year when Daylight Savings Time began and ended and we changed the time an hour. Having no access to a clock that automatically updated itself, Georgia relied on the sun for cues. It took about a month each time to shift her to the new 6:00. Kids and pets do not do well with time changes, do they? Me, neither. I hate the fact that midnight now comes at 7:12 PM.

Georgia took two walks a day with great focus and concentration. She knew the route, knew where she wanted to pull over to sniff something, and she pulled so hard that my right arm is permanently longer than my left. You might say she pursued eating and walking with a doggedness unlike any other. That girl was driven!

The fourth chapter of Proverbs is an entreaty from a father to his children to learn knowledge and wisdom so that their feet would not stray off the path of righteousness onto the weeds and thistles of evil thinking and immoral behavior. The father called for a single-mindedness of purpose. He counseled his children to guard their minds, for “life flows from it.” Wisdom dictates that we keep far from those with corrupt mouths and devious lips, as these surely will lead us astray.

And Lord knows the internet is full of corrupt mouths and devious lips.

Proverbs 4 (Common English Bible)

My children, pay attention to my words.
Bend your ear to my speech.
21 Don’t let them slip from your sight.
Guard them in your mind.
22 They are life to those who find them,
and healing for their entire body.
23 More than anything you guard, protect your mind, for life flows from it.
24 Have nothing to do with a corrupt mouth;
keep devious lips far from you.


25 Focus your eyes straight ahead;
keep your gaze on what is in front of you.
26 Watch your feet on the way,
and all your paths will be secure.
27 Don’t deviate a bit to the right or the left;
turn your feet away from evil.

By focusing on what is straight ahead, we keep our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. As we recently discussed with our study of Hebrews 12 a few weeks ago, focusing on Jesus is the only way to avoid being tripped up by sin and weighed down by our past. A clear, single-minded approach to life in the way that Jesus led his is the only way.

Today is a day of great distraction, arguing voices, loud opinions, and things that will pull our focus away from our singular goal of following Christ. Don’t fall for it. Don’t get caught up in the rhetoric. Don’t feel pulled away from what really matters. What really matters is how you will be Christ-like to the world in your attitudes, your actions, and the things that come out of your mouth today. After all, your mouth is the only one you can control.

With the intent of a hungry Lab, may we be determined to go out and bless the world in any way that we can today, in Jesus’ name and for his sake. Amen.

Is It Dinnertime Yet?

Staying Focused

Posted on by Betsy

Dogs love walks. They may not like leashes, gentle leaders, other dogs on the street, or rules, but in general, dogs love walks. When I used to walk my dog Georgia, her intense focus on the task almost pulled my arm out of the socket several times. We live on a cul-de-sac, so every single day we walked in the same direction. We may have added a street at the end, but every day, twice a day, we walked the same street, passed the same houses, and greeted the same neighbors. Yet Georgia walked with such gusto and purpose, it’s as though every walk was a new and exciting venture. And there was no use in talking to her when she was walking; she was too busy concentrating.

You’ve watched kids do the same thing. Give a kid a Lego project, and watch her tongue slip out of the side of her mouth as focus draws her in and the background activity fades away. The ability to tune-out in order to focus-in is a gift from God, and has brought us all through driver’s exams, final papers, graduation, scoring the touchdown, childbirth, accomplishing the big project at work, and has even saved our lives when the surgeon’s focus was accurate. Olympians, politicians, and three-year-olds know the value of focusing.

But even the strongest among us can occasionally lose focus. Or maybe it’s a matter of shifting our focus to the wrong things. We can focus a lot of time, energy, and attention to things around us that are not going carry us forward to the goal of being citizens of heaven. All day long our focus can shift to useless things like comparing ourselves to all those happy, beautiful (fake) families on Face Book, envying the coworker’s expensive car and wondering why you don’t have one, clicking on a friend’s vacation video, reading announcements of someone’s child who got straight A’s and won four school awards … all these things are focus-stealers that take you down wrong paths. Too much time on Instagram can lead to Instagrim, where you get caught in a sticky comparison trap that makes your vision blur. When you do that, you lose sight of what’s really important.

So what’s really important?

Seeking a relationship with the One who makes us beautiful and whole.

Building a partnership with the One who will transform our earthly bodies into glorious ones like his own.

Staying on the right track and living a life worthy of the cross.

Focusing on God, and letting the rest of it go. All of it.

Philippians 3:15-21 (The Message)

So let’s keep focused on that goal, those of us who want everything God has for us. If any of you have something else in mind, something less than total commitment, God will clear your blurred vision – you’ll see it yet! 

16 Now that we’re on the right track, let’s stay on it. 17 Stick with me, friends. Keep track of those you see running this same course, headed for this same goal. 18 There are many out there taking other paths, choosing other goals, and trying to get you to go along with them. I’ve warned you of them many times; sadly, I’m having to do it again. All they want is easy street. They hate Christ’s Cross. 

19 But easy street is a dead-end street. Those who live there make their bellies their gods; belches are their praise; all they can think of is their appetites. 20 But there’s far more to life for us. We’re citizens of high heaven! We’re waiting the arrival of the Savior, the Master, Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our earthy bodies into glorious bodies like his own. He’ll make us beautiful and whole with the same powerful skill by which he is putting everything as it should be, under and around him.

Lord, in your mercy, help us focus!

Focused