Refocus

Well, there are some things we just can’t learn by example. We have to learn them by experience. Many times we can look ahead at those who are traveling the road before us and see with perfect vision just what we would do. Often though, things look different when we are traveling the road alone and the experience is our own... and we can’t just re-calibrate our GPS. We simply can’t because our path includes the unforeseen; the detour, the road block, the orange cones, the slow lane and sometimes even the accident. It never ceases to amaze me how slow to learn I sometimes am. It is not until a life-altering event (code for “bad thing”) happens to me that the veil is lifted and I begin to see what really is important. 

I realize today that I have spent the last few years obsessing about the completely irrelevant, which has no eternal implications, whatsoever. I have wasted time and mental energy sorting through the minutia of insignificance only to end up frustrated by the lack of results and filled with dissatisfaction. It was, again, not until my life-altering event happened to me that I started to realize that it was time to refocus. Forcing me to face this rather unpleasant circumstance is my Lord's way of grabbing my face and turning it the other way, so my eyes could see what they needed to be seeing all along.

This is why my word for 2014 is “refocus.” I want the Lord to refocus my eyes so I can see again. I want Him to recalibrate my GPS (God Positioning System) and set me back on course…His course. Since His path is the one which will lead me back to Him, that’s the one I want to follow. But in order to do that, I need to see clearly and I am going to trust Him that He will adjust my focus so I could be on my way in the new year that begins today.