Friday, March 5, 2010

Focus & HNL

I periodically sit and ask myself questions.  They are not always the same questions, but more often than not they bring me around to the same results.
One of the common questions goes something like, "Why am I doing what I am doing?  As I was "catching up" this morning in the devotional book I read, yes, I have fallen behind in my quiet time, again; I was reminded, again, how overwhelming life has been these last 6-12 months.  Am I doing everything out of relationship with Jesus or is it based on a "duty" to my family, to our associates at work, to my ego, to God?  Is all I do, period; is it divided into segments?  I must admit that in the busyness of my life these last few months, in the overwhelming stress, I have divided my work, my family, and my "service" to God into segments.  It seems at times to all be out of focus.  It never ceases to amaze me how easy it is in our day in and day out world we forget God's encouragement to do EVERYTHING as if we are doing it for Him.  When we enter into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ we are given a new focus on life.  It is a focus of a love relationship with the God of the Universe, based on His unconditional Love to me.  As my segments have gotten more divided so has my focus.
When I take pictures, Focus, is critical.  It determines a bad image from a good image, a good image from a great image.  Focus can even change and/or alter the great image to shift attention within the image.  The overriding importance is my attention to the focusing.  In everything that I look at through the viewfinder I must, above everything else pay attention to the focus.  If I don't have an overriding purpose in my focus everything competes for that focus, for my attention; it all gets blurred.
As I read through my devotional book I was brought back to the verse that I wrote inside the front flyleaf of the book.  It has become my life verse, my Focus, if you will.  My focus must be about relationship; my relationship with Jesus Christ, and how that relationship influences all others.  Everything I say and do must be focused through that relationship.  If not, it becomes just another duty, responsibility, or simply drudgery.
That verse comes from the Amplified version of The Bible and is found in Philippians chapter 3 and verse 10:
"For my determined purpose is to Know Him -- that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly, and that I may in that same way come to know the power out flowing from His resurrection which it exerts over believers; and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed in spirit into His likeness, even to His death."
When my life is focused, it all makes more sense, it is much less segmented.  When I am focused on my relationship with Jesus, my mind is focused on what is most important and is not so distracted.  All the segmented burdens and stresses that come with everyday "life" and press down on my heart, come into sharper focus, and a clearer sense of priority is brought to bear.  It adds a renewed level of Hope to life and I am energized to take relationships and life in general to a HNL (Ho Nutha Level)!!!

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