Choose your Focus

At our last Friday Night Kids Club in Charlottesville, I taught a lesson on Focus, but without a doubt it’s not just for kids.  We know the story of Jesus walking on the water; how the already exhausted and frightened disciples in their boat became even more terrified when they thought they were seeing a ghost.  Then Peter, after hearing the voice of the “ghost”, concluded that it must be Jesus and called out, “Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come to you.”  Wow!  What a crazy thing to say.  It seems a little rash to me.  But he had faith.  He believed in his Lord.  He got out of the boat and WALKED ON WATER!!!  In the middle of a terrible storm no less!  But it didn’t last long.  His FOCUS went from Jesus to the storm and waves around him.  And as his focus on the Lord waned, so did his faith.

For “my girls” in this class it’s always a good idea to have a tangible object lesson.  In fact, it would be nice to have the whole lesson be tangible if that were possible – their attention span lasts about as long as Peter’s did in that storm. J  I took some short straws to class and told them to hold the straw about ten inches in front of their face.  Now focus on the straw.  Can you see it clearly?  Can you see the person sitting across from you clearly at the same time?  Now shift your focus to that person and keep the straw there.  Can you still see the straw?  It gets fuzzy and is still there, but you can kind of “see through it”. (You can do this with your finger and the computer screen if you would like a tangible object lesson too! J)

We CHOOSE what we focus on.  I’ll say it again.  What we focus on is OUR CHOICE.  We don’t get to decide if we’re going to be in the middle of a storm, we don’t get to decide whether our life is easy or hard.  But we get to decide what we will focus on.  And as soon as Jesus begins to get out of focus and fuzzy, the storm gets a little clearer.  Faith grows a little weaker and fear gets a little stronger.  Focus on the Giver of Life and the Calmer of Storms and faith grows stronger because you are seeing Truth.  He is good!  CHOOSE to believe that.

For it is by faith that we walk and not by sight.

2 Corinthians 5:7.