A Life of Faith: Focus

Today I preached about refocusing.

The gospel text today was quite exciting. It's from the second chapter of the gospel of John. In it, Jesus goes to the Temple and is disgusted by what he sees taking place. So he knocks over tables, makes a whip, and dumps out all the money! He kicks everyone out and they are all stunned.

He was frustrated because the people were off-track. There was all kinds of corruption, greed, and injustice taking place. And everyone was so distracted, that they were missing out on God's presence in their midst.

So Jesus moves everyone out of the Temple, and they are forced to pause and refocus.

I think it's a great gospel lesson for everyone. It reminds us all that sometimes we have to pause and refocus, too - as individuals, as couples, as communities of faith. Are we living in a life-giving way? Are we sharing? Are we loving?

Here are few focus-related quotes:

You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.

-Mark Twain

The key to success is to focus our conscious mind on things we desire not things we fear.

-Brian Tracy

We can always choose to perceive things differently. You can focus on what's wrong in your life, or you can focus on what's right.

-Marianne Williamson