What we focus on really matters. If you can’t focus, you are doomed to live a blurry life, flitting about from place to place. Scatterbrained is a good way to describe it. Just as bad, by focusing on the wrong things you will end up at the wrong places. Focusing on the wrong things can overwhelm me. I’m starting to realize how important what I am focusing on is.
We are always bombarded with stimuli, the sounds and sights that surround us are staggering. Without focus, we are doomed to a cacophony of sights and sounds.
People who have a brain injury often say they are overwhelmed by the lights, the people, the noises. The distractions around them overwhelm their ability to focus. So, they withdraw to somewhere quiet, they close their eyes, they wear ear plugs, it takes a coping mechanism, a way to focus. I will give one example in my life, something that is unrelated to my stroke.
I have been using hearing aids for 30 years, and my hearing is getting worse. The goal of a hearing aid is not just to amplify but to make speech legible, to focus your hearing on what is said. My hearing aids amplify fine, the problem is figuring out what sounds matter. In a noisy place they actually make things worse. In a noisy place like a restaurant I generally veg out. Sitting there with my thoughts. It is actually sort of peaceful, all the conversations, all the soft music morphed into a pleasant hum, that is until someone wants to talk to me. Rather than a pleasant hum it turns into noise. Noise that conflicts with all that has been said. I just can’t focus on what was said. So, I say, “what”, over and over again, or I find somewhere quieter, or maybe, full disclosure, I often just smile and nod. Hoping that I didn’t commit to something.
I’m wondering if that is happening as we try to focus on the things that truly matter. All the noise from our world, our work, social media, news, politics, wars, pandemics, can mask off what we need to focus on. And just amplifying everything doesn’t help.
I am trying to focus on the things that matter. Many of the things I used to stress about are not very important to me anymore. They are still there, but I don’t give them much thought. I’m thankful I still can focus, that the distractions in my life are doable. I need to be sure I am focused on the right things.
Here is one thing that the bible says about focusing on things that matter.
Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy–meditate on these things.
Philippians 4.8
Focus on these things, meditate on these things. That is hard to do. Just this week, as I was working on this post, I got so discouraged. The words weren’t there, the ideas weren’t working, just a hodge-podge of thoughts. As I was writing about focusing on the good, I realized I wasn’t doing that. I was focused on the bad in my life. So I went for a walk and I focused on the good. There is so much good in my life.
I live in a beautiful world, and I live in a broken world. What the Christian worldview says about our world sure rings true. We live in a world that was created good but is broken. I can see that everywhere, the goodness and the brokenness. Do I focus on the brokenness, or the goodness in this world? Check this out, my stroke gave me scads of both the brokenness, and the beauty of this world, and the problems and the blessings of my life as well. What I focus on really matters, it changes everything.
Focusing on who we are following is important as well. When everything seems unthinkably bleak, Jesus says, “Come to me, you who are heavy burdened, and I will give you rest.” That happened to me. When the brokenness overshadowed everything, I focused on the one who promised me rest. And it worked. God gave me rest. Focusing on the one we are following is essential when the brokenness of the world becomes overwhelming.
It is also essential when life is good. Focusing on the good in the world has two sides. The good in our life can change our focus as well. The good things in our life can become a distraction to what we are called to do.
Here is what the bible says about focusing on and following Jesus.
As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” He said to another man, “Follow me.” But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.” Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
Luke 9:57-62
Wow, that is pretty brutal, I just want to say goodbye? What do we focus on, the distractions of our lives or following Christ? The apostle Paul says this about following Jesus.
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: 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 in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:12-14
He is focusing on the goal, focusing on who he is following.
1000 words is a good length for a blog post. 2000 words is oftentimes too long. So if you are tired of reading, here is your 1085 word off-ramp.
But there is an on-ramp as well if you want to read on.
Typically, when you think about focusing on things, you are thinking about focusing your eyes or maybe your ears. But we also need to focus on our thoughts. The book I’m currently reading says everything in our mind begins with a thought. Thoughts, where do they come from? Do they begin in our minds, or do they end in our minds and start somewhere else? The day after my stroke I realized something, although my mind wasn’t working very well at all, I was still the same man. Exactly the same. How did that happen? When my brain was damaged, everything else changed, changed in a heartbeat. But somehow I was the same man.
I can recall seeing a woman at Casa Colina rehab hospital who I assume had a stroke. Whatever it was, it was bad. Sitting there on a wheelchair, with her head cocking sideways, drooling, with no use of her body, no life in her face. And I wondered if she was the same person, unresponsive but the same person. Man, I think she was. One day I will actually be brain-dead, so will you. But who I am will live on because my spirit lives on. So I’m wondering if that is where our thoughts come from. Not from my brain, but from me. It is where they start, but they reside in our brains where thoughts turn into memories. Our brain can manipulate them to some degree, and they can be entrenched in your brain, for bad or for good.
The theme of this book is about how to deal with toxic thoughts by refocusing our minds. Your thoughts are powerful, your memories are powerful. And often we play them over and over again until we know them by heart. Decades later we are still thinking about them. A Jr. high boy and a bully, or a dad who told you you were useless, or a traumatic event of some sort. And it doesn’t matter if they’re true or not because they become “true” for you, and many times we are controlled by those memories. They are part of us. Apparently, memories are actually encoded in our genes. As powerful as those memories are, our minds are more powerful yet. Your mind is incredible. It can trap you in a web of lies, or, if you want, it will lead you to peace and life.
It is an interesting book, half science, half application, all linked to the truth of the bible. If we somehow can focus on those truths.
Have you ever heard of the Romans road, it is a popular way to present the Gospel. There is another Romans road, and it happens in our minds.
It starts with a realistic appraisal of our depraved state of mind.
Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.
Romans 1:28
It results in death. But there is a promise of life and peace as well.
The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.
Romans 8:6
Your mind can give you life and peace, or it can give you death. That is so powerful. Before our choices, good or bad, happen, something else is already happening in our mind. Something that leads to life or death. So what are we to do:
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 12:2
The goodness and brokenness of our world is mirrored in the concepts and ideas that we are immersed in. We are living in a world that, more and more, is built on lies. But there is truth in this world as well. Focusing my thoughts on the truth is so important. The lies in this world will pollute my mind unless I renew my mind. Day by day, or maybe moment by moment.
So I’m working on renewing my mind. Every day, I’m working on it. Every day. I always start my day in God’s word, focusing on the truth of who I am. I’m focusing on the blessings in my life, which are so plentiful. I’m focusing on the man Jesus who redeemed me and called me by name and told me, you are mine. (from Is 43.1) And I’m clinging to the transformation that is promised by the renewing of my mind.
If you’re interested, here is the book I am currently reading: Switch On Your Brain, by Dr. Caroline Leaf. The concepts are interesting and maybe even profound. They sure resonate with me.
