Laser Focus

Andrea Merrill / Worship Arts Pastor

Photo by Maico Amorim on Unsplash

By the time this blog gets published our Terminus sermon series will be over, but hopefully the things that were taught haven’t left any of us. The series certainly made me think (and if you missed any of the sermons, they’re all on YouTube). Pastor Pat has been talking week after week about “starting with the end in mind”, about knowing what our end goal is, and doing everything with that as our focus.

There was a season of my life that I was involved in quite a bit of racing, and I learned quickly what it took to be in shape for the events I was entering. There was always discipline involved, and there were ALWAYS things that I had to say no to in order to stay focused on my goal to compete well. Competing well takes time and energy. It requires planning, physical training, healthy eating, good rest and daily attention to what the body needs in order to be ready. I’ve been thinking about those days lately because training for those races gave me laser focus. I wasn’t grabbing at every great opportunity that came along or even saying yes to every invitation because I knew what the consequences would be if I deviated from the plan. With every race I had one chance to achieve my goal. There was no “redo.”

I’m involved in the church’s Flourish Mentor program. It’s a ministry for women that involves partnering a wise mentor with a growing mentee as they work through a year-long Bible study together. A recent week's reading was from Philippians 3 which contains the verses, “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward to Christ Jesus” (verses 13b-14). Paul, in this passage, was staying focused on his calling. He knew what he was brought into God’s family to do and he wasn’t going to allow anything to distract him or hold him back. Paul suffered persecution, beatings, and even jail time as he sought to follow through on God’s calling. Those things may very well come for us too, but in our current environment I can easily get distracted and change course by busyness, by enticing opportunities that may not align with the course God has me on. I get swayed by things that feel like responsibility, by perfectionism and by fear, BUT every time I say “yes” to one of those things I’m allowing it to take a little chunk of my time and focus away from my calling and current assignment.

To take the racing analogy a step further, when I was in preparation for an event I took my nutrition very seriously. Even gaining a little bit of weight would potentially slow me down enough to lose that race, so I measured my portions and crafted my diet accordingly. I wasn’t willing to potentially sacrifice the whole race because I wanted to indulge in something that wouldn’t help me. Yet I see myself fighting this tendency in life. I want to fulfill what God has assigned for me to do, but get sidetracked when other opportunities come along. I waste time on things that don’t matter. I say yes to things that are, in effect, causing me to say no to staying focused. I’m a HUGE work-in-progress in this area. It seemed so easy as an athlete because the goal was very tangible, but when I’m looking at the big picture of my life the finish line is a little blurry. I may not have the complete picture of what God wants me doing with my life, but I do think I know what I’m supposed to be doing right now ... and I see how often I lose my focus.

Let’s circle back to Terminus. When I get to the end of my life I know I’ll be regretful if I’ve wasted away my shot of finishing what God has put in front of me because I’ve been too distracted or unwilling to stay focused and disciplined. We all have one chance – one life – to do what God has brought us into His family to do. When He says it’s time to go, that’s it. We don’t get a “redo.” My prayer for you and for our church is that God would make the calling clear and give us the laser focus we need to accomplish it!