Where is Your Focus?

I have a long-term goal--a life-long goal really--to develop the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16). I want to think His thoughts, to share His attitudes, and to see the world and its people as He saw them, as He sees them.

Jesus found spiritual truths in every-day incidents, like straining milk into a pitcher or setting aside a lump of dough to rise. I want to find such insights in the world racing past me, but I must confess that it doesn't often happen. I think this is because I do not yet see things often enough from a spiritual point of view.

One day recently, though, I was downtown, walking beside the train tracks, when something on the other side caught my attention--a person hurrying along who had a familiar face. I stopped for a moment to watch, and as I did, a commuter train whizzed by.

For a second I was annoyed that the train was blocking my view, but then I realized that I could still see the walker if I looked through the windows on both sides of the train and ignored the solid walls as they shot past.

Almost immediately I was struck with the lesson acted out before me. We sometimes try to examine eternal truths, like love, justice, mercy, humility, and just as we begin to identify the ways we connect to them, the commuter-train-busyness of life careens past, distracting us and blocking our view.

Only by concentrating and focusing on what is important can we regain our vision of the eternal. And then sometimes, our attention can be so set that we hardly even notice what whizzes and clackety-clacks just past our noses.

Paul put it this way, "We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" (2 Cor. 4:18). Where is your focus today?

Copyright © 2005 Steve Singleton, All rights reserved.

Steve Singleton has written and edited several books and numerous articles on subjects of interest to Bible students. He has taught Greek, Bible, and religious studies courses Bible college, university, and adult education programs. He has taught seminars and workshops in 11 states and the Caribbean.

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