Hyper-focus

I head out the door with one intention in mind.

Okay Lord, what do you want to show me today. What are you thinking about?

Creation around me helps me focus. Taking photos brings me in close to see these God-created things that exist outside of worry and striving.

It’s easier to focus on this when I’m alone. I’m not feeling the need to hop-scotch around topics, or be politically correct. I can just search for His hand here.

When I’m in a crowd—I know what it feels like to be insecure and ‘on the outside’ and so I overcompensate and overstep to bring people in but also to avoid hurting someone else.

Which more often than not….causes the very issue I am trying to avoid.

Its the same thing that happens if, while driving, you stare out your window at that funny sign on the side of the road a bit too long… you steer right towards it.

Whatever we focus on—we shift towards

Focus on the truth, nobility, right things, pure things, lovely things, admirable things, excellent things, things deserving praise… spend time looking for the beauty in life… and the God of peace will be with you!

I haven’t had a lot of peace lately, haven’t let it in. Peace is Jesus, but I’ve been making Him wait in the wings while I scramble.

A lot of stress trying to figure out where life will fit and how I’m going to get things done with just 24 hours in a day. I’m steering right into the things causing harm, and away from the One who could bring stillness.

So in my quiet time with the Lord this week, I asked for course correction and direction.

You’re calling me to many things in this season, and I want to do it well… but it just feels like too much!

I sat in silence with my own declaration for a few moments, feeling the weight of it, the truth of it, and judging it to be a little bit of a tantrum. It was honest, it was how I felt… but it wasn’t the truth. I dropped my shoulders and let go.

Okay Lord, I’m ready for your truth. 

“What are you magnifying? What are you focusing on? What is causing you to veer off the road” 

My to-do list. The weight of obligation and life, and even the good things that I am excited to do. And the lack of time to do it all well. What I assume others are expecting… 

“You are magnifying the weight of the daily tasks and your ideas of how it should be accomplished. It’s heavy because it’s out of place-its not what I’m asking. I just want you to draw near to me”

A magnifying glass brings one point of information to the surface. You can see the shimmer on a dragonfly’s wings, the individual grains of sand with their different colors and jagged edges, fine print in bold large crisp letters. Whatever is magnified in the glass fills your vision. Small becomes large. 

I magnify my to-do list and the overwhelm by obsessing on it for hours a day.. not only do I waste time freaking out… but I haven’t made progress either. And I’ve successfully filled my vision with this tiny little pile of dirt and called it a mountain. 

There are consequences to what we magnify. Magnify the sun’s rays over a pile of leaves and smoke and fire will follow. Magnify the problems in life, and smoke and fire will follow.

More God-focus, more knowing who He is, and how tiny this mountain really is. God-focus brings a cooling effect and serenity. It pours water over the dry places in our souls and prevents flame from the intensity of life.

The peace that surpasses understanding, and anxiety, and short tempers. 

Think about whatever is true, lovely, noble, pure, true, right, excellent, praiseworthy…find the good, magnify God! Come on Cassie… re-focus—There’s a lot going on… but where is the Lord? It’s a battle for the eyes—both physical and spiritual eyes… the internal and external. Where I look… I will go. 

A battle fought daily… minute by minute sometimes.

The battles I walk through today become the victories I draw on tomorrow. 

So I’m adjusting my focus by filling my gaze with scripture and lovely things, and gratitude. The to-do list is still there, but I don’t serve the list, its a tool. 

Lord forgive me for making this tool a focus in my life. 

I feel the re-focus adjustment settle in my body. Peace. 

And a reminder. He is good.

Oh, magnify the Lord with me, And let us exalt His name together. Psalms 34:3 (ESV)