“I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; From where shall my help come? My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.” Psalm 121:1-2

Focus is one of the most talked about issues of our times. It has been said in studies that hours spent on social media has drastically shortened a generation’s attention span. In recognition of this fact, television commercials, once 30 seconds to a minute long have now dropped to 15 seconds, 10 seconds and even 5 seconds in the hopes of not boring consumers.

Adults are not escaping this problem, either. We are deluged each day with headlines, texts, messages, Insta/Facebook posts, on top of the normal sharing of information in our families and our workplaces. Our brains are on overload to the extreme and are exhausted.

One of the most important lessons I learned during my years in Bible school, came from a simple diagram. Mark Geppert, the director of the school and our Mission’s Pastor, was teaching us as future pastors and missionaries the importance of keeping our priorities in clear focus and our eyes on the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus. The diagram he used was a simple horizontal line of circles. On the top side of the line was the Lord. Under the line was us. All along that horizontal line were attention grabbing issues and situations: career, money, debt, children, health, family, relationships, housing, cars, expectations of others.

The verse he used to teach us was from Hebrews 12. I love how the Passion translation puts it: “We look away from the natural realm and we fasten our gaze onto Jesus who birthed faith within us and who leads us forward into faith’s perfection.” The old version says: keeping our eyes FIXED on Jesus.

Beloved, that is the only answer to all the craziness, all the angst, all the anger and anguish and sorrow that these times are hurling at us daily.

If we want to be able to walk freely, living in the fullness of God’s love and purpose, we must keep our eyes on Him. All the other issues on the horizontal line will take care of themselves if we can just make sure that the one, vertical relationship is front and center for every day, every step, every decision. He is able to make our paths straight and heal our focus problem, when He becomes our Focal Point.

~ Deb Ecker