Focus on what's important

It's incredibly easy to go about our everyday life, swaying in different directions, feeling different emotions and holding different opinions, solely based on what is happening at any given moment.  The way in which we live our lives, the jobs we do, the people we spend time with, the news we read, the things we watch, all have a huge effect on us and can all too easily take our focus off what is really important in life.

This last weekend, I spent a couple of days near Swindon on a conference for youth workers.  The theme of this year's conference was 'Follow the Leader'.  One of the 'strap-lines' on the opening page of the programme read 'This weekend is time set apart to focus on Jesus.'

On reflecting upon this weekend I was drawn back to a talk which I gave a few weeks ago at my church which brought out three key points which should help us to concentrate on what is really important in our lives and hopefully ensure that we waste less of our time being pushed backwards and forwards each day, by our work, by people and by the media.

The first point is that 'we have got to make room'.
This may seem like an obvious point but if you really think about it, how much room do you really give to the important things in your life on a daily basis?  How much room do you give to your children, or with your husband/wife.  How much room do you give to your favourite hobby or your best friend?  For Christians like myself, how much room do we give Jesus in our daily lives and how much room to we give to serving Him?

I used the analogy of being like a boat in the talk that I gave and how if nothing is in control of the boat, or if the wrong thing is in control of the boat, it'll end up as a shipwreck.  We will end up as a shipwreck if we don't allow our lives to be piloted by the things that really matter to us, the important stuff!

It us all too easy for things to take up our time, take away our time even.  This weekend helped me to realise this, returning home with a bottle of wine and a bunch of flowers for my wife and refocusing my role within the church on one that is focused solely on the cross and nothing else!

The second point is that 'we have to get uncomfortable'.
Devoted our lives to the things that are really important to us is never going to be easy.  Life will try and distract us from these things, society will try and distract us from these things, the devil will try and distract us from these things.

When I talk about being uncomfortable, I don't mean that we should remove the mattress from our bed or sell our sofas, what I mean is that we must become uncomfortable with those things around us which are taking us away from what is important.  We need to stand up for what we believe in and we need to stand up for who we believe in, both of which will inevitably bring you to a place where you will encounter some resistance.

As Christians, persecution is talking about in the Bible- standing up for your faith, sticking with Jesus, goes totally against the grain of today's society and the way in which people live their lives.  Sometimes this results in a peaceful agreement to disagree but sometimes this results in arguments, persecution, mocking- I'm thankful that at present, we live in a country in which you wont get killed for standing up for what you believe in.

Something that will stick with me forever was the incredible outpouring of pain by several hundred young people at Soul Survivor two years ago.  Prayer was offered for any young people dealing with self-harm or suicidal thoughts and hundreds went forward.  As a follower of Jesus, as someone who is called to love others, to quote my Facebook status on this day in question, 'I am incredibly uncomfortable with the way in which we live our lives and the devastating effect this is having on the children and young people we are raising.'

Life and society will try and throw things my way in an attempt to distract me from my call to love people- it's these things that I have got to be uncomfortable with, what is it for you?

The third and final point was that we need to 'hold on'.
In our 'throw away' society where things don't get fixed, they just get replaced, we need to hold on tight to those things that mean everything to us.  Sometimes life is easy and sometimes it is not but through it all, we must cling on to what is really important to us.

Throughout the gospel of Jesus we see miracles taking place, because people held on to Jesus.  People had faith in Jesus, people trusted Jesus and people followed Jesus.  Miracles still take place today in and through the lives of people who put Jesus first.

What is the most important thing in your life?  Make room for it, get uncomfortable with the things that distract you from it and above all, hold onto it for dear life.

'Although my faith may stumble and falter, though troubles find me, here I will stay.  The past that held me, has lost it's power and death has lost it's sting.  Hold on, I'll hold on to the cross.  Love so amazing, so divine, hold on, I'll hold on to the cross.'