Forced to FOCUS

Maintaining my focus on the task at hand has always been a struggle for me. I simply get distracted so easily. Something enters my line of sight and demands my immediate attention, and off I go again…for just a minute, I tpromise…until I find that my time is gone and my task is left incomplete.

I’m limited in where I can write because my attention drifts so easily. Music of any kind, the television set in a nearby room, and especially conversations between people around me stop the process completely. One solution I’ve tried recently is to set a timer nearby, the constant ticking of which would remind me of the passage of time and hurry me on with the project at hand. Unfortunately the ticking itself paralyzed me till I couldn’t type a word.

I waste a lot of time in my non-creative moments of the day due to this same issue, switching courses midstream and ending with too many projects started and too few completed. As a result I feel the constant stress of to-do lists left undone, people disappointed in my lack of progress in projects needing my attention, and the discouragement of a seemingly wasted day but one in which I was yet constantly busy.

As I devote more time to my writing this month, I’m aware that there are still other things to be done; bills need to be paid on time, clothes need to be washed, and the pile of dishes in the sink needs to be dealt with. I realize that I have to concentrate more than ever before on whatever the task at hand, as nothing gets a second chance - there are absolutely no hours left to devote to something later in the day if I dilly-dally at all during its scheduled time slot. But in the back of my mind, I’m constantly thinking of the next letter, the next post, the next blog to visit, the next new friend to meet. The Challenge is simply always there.

It’s interesting that I’m writing this on Good Friday, the day that Christ suffered on the cross and died. And as I look at His life, I’m reminded that whatever He found Himself doing on any given day, His mind was still focused on the reason He came, to the point that at the moment of His death He spoke of its completion.. Likewise we are here for a season with a destiny that we are meant to fulfill. And (thankfully!) while I don’t hear it, I know that there is a clock ticking away, reminding me to treasure each moment while I’m in it while yet counting down the time left to me to be about my Father’s business.

One way or another I’m going to reach both the end of the month and the end of my days. My focus is on crossing the finish line with the alphabet complete… and my purpose here fulfilled.

“…Jesus said, “It is finished.’ With that he bowed his head and gave up his spirit,”
(John 19:30) NIV)