Focus on Jesus

About 5 years ago, I wrote a post on Focus (go read it). I was in the middle of a battle with cancer and it was really hard but through the hard, God really taught me and my family many things. This little lesson about focus was one of the greatest things that He taught me.  

Life is hard, the world we live in is messy. People are sinners, which means that my friends, neighbors, family and kids are sinners. I am a sinner. We make mistakes and we don't always do things the right way.  We don't always love the way we should. But......

When we keep our eyes on Jesus, the forgiver of our sins, the Savior of this world, then it makes the sins of this world a little easier to forgive and move forward.

When I mess up, it is so easy for me to focus on the dirty and dwell in it.  As soon as I do, it allows all sorts of doubts, fears, and past failures or mistakes to creep back in.  It cripples me, it makes me question every decision, it causes me to stop moving forward.  

When other people mess up, it is also easy to jump into judgement and gossip which then causes failure, fear, and hurt for the other person and for me.  

but......

When we fix our eyes on Jesus and choose to see the way He does, amazing things start to happen.  The messy still hurts, but we learn from it, we grow from it.  We LOVE other people understanding that their messy is no different than ours.  We learn to forgive ourselves and to let the past be the past.  We see the good and the positive lessons that are learned from our mistakes. We listen and we share. We grow in our relationship with Christ and the others around us.  

This last year, I stepped into a new ministry that God is giving me the Vision for, Grace Like Rain.  It has been amazing and incredible to watch it grow.  The staff, volunteers, and families that I have met over the last year have taught me so many things.  but.......

It has also been hard! When something doesn't go exactly the way we would like then I begin to allow the fear to creep in.  I start doubting everything! As soon as I start going down this path, I ask for prayer which helps me to refocus my eyes on Jesus! I reach out to my people! We have to share the ugly sometimes to learn from it and to move forward. That is what His people are here for, His community, His family, His church. We are not meant to do this life alone.

I remind myself that things are going to be hard, we are going to fail and make mistakes especially by the worlds standards but no matter what, if I am focusing on Him and loving others the way He commands us to, then He is in control.  Love never fails!  

1 Corinthians 13English Standard Version (ESV)

The Way of Love

13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;[b] 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Choose to focus on Jesus! Choose to see the good in others and yourself.  Choose to Love unconditionally!  It may not make life less messy but it is definitely lot more joyful when you do.