Adjusting Our Focus

September 6, 2011 / by bofc / Make A Comment / Filed under Something Inspirational

Yesterday, I was on this fast moving train (metaphorically speaking) that started at 5 am to be at work by 6. From there I was going at break-neck speed from Shorewood to New Lenox, to Glen Ellyn back to New Lenox. Physical speeds cruising at 180 mph, aiming for my final destination; my mom’s in Cicero.

In a previous blog, I quoted Rick Warren, “life is not so much like a roller coaster but a set of railroad tracks where good and bad are happening at the same time and often on the same day.” I have had a few of those days and yesterday was no exception.

I received a call from my son to see if I wanted to join his wife at the “greet and meet” for my granddaughter Onya’s first day of Kindergarten. Delighted, I took the afternoon off from work to enjoy this special day in my granddaughter’s life. It was also my grandson Max’s first day of high school. Love all those “firsts.”

I was on my way to the “meet and greet” thinking about all my grandchildren and my niece expecting her precious baby Luca this fall and I was overwhelmed with joy and happiness. The sounds from my stomach interrupted my happy thoughts and I looked for a place to grab a quick bite to eat.

Then in a matter of a moment, my phone rang and I was sitting in the parking lot of Taco Bell with tears streaming down my face. The train came to a screeching halt.

My sister called me from the dairy section in Wal-Mart to tell me her surgeon just called with her latest biopsy report and the news was not good– she was now looking at a more serious surgery. Yep, she received the news at Wal-Mart. No longer are the days where they call you to the office with your loved one holding your hand to tell you the NEWS.

I was scheduled to fly out the next morning and be with her for what we thought in the beginning was very early stage breast cancer; a lumpectomy, probably radiation, and no chemotherapy. But, it’s always something and as more tests were done and more things were revealed, the surgery went from a lumpectomy to a mastectomy and had to be rescheduled.

How then should we live? How then do we reconcile all these emotions that come at us with lightning speed? When prayers aren’t answered for our loved ones the way we want? When our heart is confused by all that is happening in the world around us?

We adjust our focus.

When confusion enters my life and I can’t make heads or tails of the situation I know I have taken my focus off of God. I still may not fully understand but I know that God does. He tells us, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, or are your ways My ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways and thoughts higher than yours.”

In my personal bible study I am studying the names of God: of His deity, character, power, authority, splendor, intimacy and sufficiency. And as often is the case when I feel like my life is on a run-away train, I simply have to pull that emergency handle, go to His word, and adjust my focus.

“So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace.” 2 Corinthians 4:16 (The Message).