Focus on God

The world around us is spinning, wilder and more out of control. It is harder to see the problems as distant. The troubles of the world seep into our homes and everyday lives. How do we keep our own hearts from despair?

There is one option; keep your eyes on God. Focus your gaze upward. Lean into His loving arms. This is the way to keep the problems of the world at bay. The world cannot touch or corrupt what we give to God. They can take our possessions. They can take our lives. But they cannot take our souls. They cannot touch what belongs to God.

The first thing to recognize is that worry and concern are human. God knows our humanity, he understands how hard it is for us to not focus on the turmoils of life. Once we acknowledge our shortcomings and our concerns we then ask what next?

It is a matter of focus. A young teenager wakes up and finds a pimple on his forehead. It is all he can see. He spends the day covering it with his bangs or hat, leaning his hand on his forehead and turning his face away. His is focused on the problem. By the end of the day the blemish is larger and even more noticeable. His whole body and mind is affected by a small blemish that will go away in a couple days.

What if he turned from the mirror, forgot its presence, joked about it, or put the concern where it should go, in a temporary problem category? He’d still have the pimple. It may even still cause embarrassment, but he’d be able to carry on and live his life. His attitude would keep the problem in check.

This may seem a silly example, but this is what we need to try to do. I am not minimizing problems. The problems in life are terrifying and real. We need to remember that we have a home with God. Focusing on this will help us see our struggles as temporary. It’s a question of scale.

John 14: 1-3 Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God;
believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so,
would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take
you to be with me that you also may be where I am.