Focus feels hard sometimes.
I just wanted to get that out there because it doesn’t matter what I’m talking about, faith, work, or family; sometimes, it’s hard to focus. You feel pulled in a million different directions between responsibilities and desires. You wind up feeling like a little of you went everywhere but not enough to make a difference, and then you wake up and do it again. Our culture doesn’t help, either. All the distractions and screens make it seem normal to lose focus and just float from thing to thing. But then, at the end of the day, we are confused why we feel unaccomplished and mentally bloated. Because our focus was off. Our ability to focus affects all aspects of our relationships and life; body, mind, soul, and spirit.
Focus on my Relationship with God
I’ve noticed that my ability to focus significantly impacts how connected I feel to Jesus. There are days where it feels like it’s just me and him against the world, and then there are other days that I’m multi-tasking everywhere and can’t find Jesus in the mess I’ve made. Even if I can tell you what was said in the sermon or during my quiet time, it feels like a lot of life got in the middle and muddied the waters.
However, I’ve also noticed that the more consistently I set aside quiet time to sit with God and make that a priority in my schedule, the easier it is to let all the other parts of life go and focus on God. And the more quality time I spend with God, the more focused I feel in other areas of life. It’s that weird catch-22 that also is affected by our rest. It seems obvious, but it’s so easy to forget that God made us for a relationship with him, and the quality of that relationship affects everything else in life, positive or negative.
Journaling
Journaling is one of the major ways I focus on my relationship with God. I definitely do better in focusing on God during prayer and Bible time, with journaling as part of it. I also like using different types of journals and prompts to help me break out of my ruts. If you’ve never tried faith journaling, I recommend you try it for two reasons. One, it lets you focus and get distracting thoughts out of your head. Two, it gives you a straightforward way to reflect on how God works in your life.
Fasting
Now the other faith habit that helps with focus is one I’ve always struggled to understand or feel like it was doing something to help me: fasting. Typically when I’ve done a fast, it’s because someone brought it up and said we should do this. So I do it, and it seems like something I’m just doing. Growing up, we did it a couple of times as a youth group, but it was very “this is how the Bible says to do it,” and I don’t remember a lot of teaching behind the heart of fasting.
Now I’m starting to shift my mind that fasting is a way to clear away the cobwebs and distractions and recenter my focus on God. Fasting is giving up things that may be neutral or good, or even significant in our life, but that keep us from time with God, or it might give us more time with God when we need more clarity on God’s plan for our life. I’ve tried fasting off and on throughout my life, and there have only been a couple of times that felt like it impacted my life at that moment. On the whole, it felt check-listy. But with this new fasting mentality, I’m starting to want to create that space and see what can be given up, if even for a short time, to make more time for me to hear from God.
Focus on my Relationship with Others
Then there’s the rest of the world. The rest of the world could be considered a distraction as a whole, and sometimes it is, but just like we need to be able to focus on our relationship with God, we have to focus on relationships with other people. And I don’t know about you, but sometimes I’m so busy getting “all the things” done that I don’t have time to consider people.
In order to have space to prioritize relationships with other people, we have to become better at self-discipline. Modern terms for it are time management and productivity; these areas come down to how much discipline you have to focus on what matters most for the moment you’re in. I have always wanted to maximize my efforts and create systems that make things happen with less effort. Still, there was a particular year when I was completely overwhelmed in all areas of my life. I had to get better at setting priorities, knowing my limits, and disciplining myself to keep to my boundaries to keep myself from burning out. By doing this, I could keep up with my professional relationships and make plenty of time for my personal relationships. If I hadn’t focused more on my life, I don’t know if I would have had space for my now husband when we started dating. And most recently, since I’ve refocused on what matters most, I’ve been the most committed to my quiet time in a long time, and I’ve started Weird Souls.
Focus on God’s Plan
The last big area that we need to develop focus around is God’s plan for each of us, and it comes in two levels, the big picture and your personal story.
The Big Picture
The big picture is the plan that applies to everyone that calls themself a Christian. Things like “Love your Neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27) and “Go and make disciples”(Matthew 28:19-20.) These are things that no matter who you are, if you follow Jesus, you need to do these things. It is the basic level of Christian living. Romans 12 outlines many of these things, and James is another great option to see more of how we are all called to live our life, man or woman, married or single, young or old. This is how we develop a worldview that helps us focus on Jesus. It’s how we slowly stop caring about all the things that we used to do, even if they weren’t bad and start doing more of how Jesus showed us to live life and make priorities.
Your Personal Story
Even though Jesus set a standard for everyone that calls themself his follower, God didn’t accidentally create them. You had a point and a purpose for being right in the place and time you are. The problem is sometimes we get so distracted by all the other options in life that we lose focus on the actual plan and purpose. Several years ago, I went through a workshop where you created a life purpose statement for yourself. Something that helped you focus on the reason God made you. Mine was and still is “ connecting people to their purpose.” It’s a simple way to remind myself what to prioritize and focus on.
Where to Start
At the end of the day, our ability to focus will only help us in the ultimate mission Jesus left us with. So this week, try to notice what areas of life you are struggling to focus. Maybe it’s when you’re around family and friends, and maybe it’s at the office, or maybe it’s during time with God. Then pick one thing you can do to improve in that area. If you need ideas, check me out on YouTube or TikTok. I’ll be giving different types of ideas this week for different areas of life.
Stay Weird,
