40 Days of Focus

In our modern culture, we are consistently bombarded with distractions. We have television, internet, cell phones, smart phones, radios, mp3 players, and a myriad of other information driven media bombarding us from all directions.

Many of us have been taught in our 21st century information-overloaded culture to embrace this phenomenon by multi-tasking. In a day where our smart phones can calculate at exponentially higher rates of speed than our mental capacities, we are required to function in similar form. The result many of us find is this - a lot of work, with very little results.

History records the world's greatest achievers. If you study them carefully, they all have one distinct characteristic, FOCUS.

I personally love the story of Coach Herb Brooks. If any of you have seen the movie "Miracle", it recounts the story of Herb and his 1980 USA Olympic Hockey team and their journey to the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid New York. The story begins with a discussion with Herb interviewing for the coaching job with the Olympic commitee. Herb clearly articulates his goal if he were given the job. To beat the Soviet Union hockey team in the Olympic games, a feat that had not been done since 1960. The rest of the movie is a chronology of the calculated steps Herb makes in taking a young group of hockey players from all across the nation, and building a team that is capable of achieving the very goal Herb sets out to accomplish. This movie clearly portrays that amount of focus, determination, as well as the discipline Herb has to focus on this specific goal. My favorite part in the movie comes at the end when, after the USA defeat the Soviet team, Herb leaves the main area, and walks to a lonely place in one of the thin halls of the complex. There you watch as Herb raises clenched hands as he physically expresses his triumph. You visually witness nearly a year of focused emotion and energy, released at one moment. That is the power of FOCUS.

It is important for us to recognize the value of being able to do multiple things at once. But everything that we do that becomes valuable in our life, is a result of focus, persistent, work, growth and determination to achieve specific goals. That is why it is so important that we evaluate areas in our life that may be a distraction (the things that keep us from achieving our goals), and be willing to apply discipline in our lives to set those things aside, because they hinder us from reaching our destination.

Mark 4:13-20
And He said to them, "Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? 14 The sower sows the word. 15 And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts. 16 These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; 17 and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they stumble. 18 Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, 19 and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 20 But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred." NKJV

The word of God demonstrates that distractions are an issue that transcend time, culture, or geography. We will be looking at what should we focus us in our next entry, but take time to consider and comment on:

Are you easily distracted?

What are the things that easily distract you?

What can you do limit or remove those distractions?

Can distractions be healthy?

What might be some ideas to help you focus on your goals?