Focus, Part 1

How is your focus in life? Fuzzy? Fluctuating? Or fixed? When I was a kid we had a boat. No motor. Just a boat, which we rowed. Good rowing takes practice—that’s what Dad always said while he was fishing—because you sit backwards, and look at where you’ve been, to determine if you’re headed where you’re going.

Rowing is a three-step process: First, you line up your destination and the boat with a fixed point behind you. Second, while keeping your eyes on the point behind you, you pull evenly on both oars. Third, before you take the oars in hand, you establish when it will be your turn to fish and the other person’s turn to row.

Hebrews says, “Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.”

This is the same principle as rowing. Our destination is knowing Christ and loving Him. Our reference point, located directly astern of life’s boat, is Christ’s work on the cross. The means of rowing the boat is Christ’s strength in and through us.

And in Part 2, I’ll develop our focus and perspective in more detail. Until then.