Attention All Believers

How are you regarding patience and focus? Are you able to be patient and stay focused on a major life’s goal or dream that you set out to achieve? Has your desire to see a dream or goal completed quickly ever become an obstacle, especially when it comes to persevering through some difficult hardships that you had to fight through? Have you ever been greatly distracted on your way to attaining your dream or goal because it took longer to realize than you thought it should and you did not have enough patience and single-mindedness to stay with it until it was accomplished?

How are you when you have to wait to get something that you have always wanted or that someone promised to give you but was delayed in coming? It may have taken this person much longer than you expected to deliver what was promised to you or something out of the ordinary caused it to be held up for an extended period of time. Were you able to patiently wait for it without it distracting your attention?

As I suspect it is for many of you, my focus and patience vary according to the situation that I am facing. For instance, if I have to wait for an extended time to enjoy a meal, I am usually patient and do not become easily distracted with the tasks that I am doing for the most part. I know that if I am patient and stay focused on the goal of preparation for my meal over and above any difficulties I may encounter, when I do eat I am able to ignore any discomfort I may have experienced, whether real or perceived, and my preparation and patience allowed me to eventually enjoy my meal in peace without distractions and that made everything I dealt with be put into a proper perspective in the end.

However, when it comes to traveling in a car, if I have to wait too long before I can get out and stretch my legs and get a break from driving or sitting, I am more likely to become more distracted and a little irate, or even disagreeable, because I am not good with sitting in a car for a long time without a driving break. I will miss out on most, if not all, of the beauty and grandeur that the trip provides for me, because of my lack of attentiveness and irritability.

I tip my hat to those of you who can drive for eight or 10 hours without a stretch or washroom break, you have my great admiration and respect. I’m not that kind of guy. I need a break after about six hours of uninterrupted driving time.

I think that our focus and patience should be considered when it comes to living out our faith in God’s promises for us. In our present set of circumstances, it can be easier to become distracted and impatient with the crises, reactions, and events that we have been dealing with this year. Those tendencies toward impatience may lead us to be unprepared to take advantage of the fulfillment of God’s promises for us. Please read Matthew 25:1-13 in your Bible. It is a story that deals with how distractions and impatience present a great obstacle to God’s promises for us.