Focus Even If It Doesn't Come Naturally

Focus Even If It Doesn't Come Naturally

I write this post as my 18-month-old son sits next to me at 5 AM.  

Yep.  

Our squirrelly, hilarious, adorable little guy is up and at 'em earlier than most of the world.  

(Those with parenting tips: We've tried your tips.  No dice.)  

Attempting to seize the opportunity for productivity, I spend time in God's Word, then grab the laptop to write, while still rubbing sleep out of my eyes.

But my son is a fidgety fellow.  (As are most 18-month olds, I believe.)  It's hard for him to sit still for more than a couple minutes, and I need to make sure he doesn't impale himself on the [insert inanimate household object]

Focus, at this moment in time, is difficult.

But I need to do it anyway.  I have a full day of church appointments, worship rehearsals, and other projects.  My opportunity to write is now.

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Let me ask you: Have you ever felt your focus being pulled from you while leading a worship service?  Have you ever had trouble focusing in the middle of worshiping God?

People come into the sanctuary 5 minutes after the worship service has started.  

Your B string is slightly out of tune on your guitar when you capo it.  

And so forth.

These are mostly-unpreventable circumstances.  But, if you're not careful, something disastrous could happen:  the entire worship service could pass by while you focus on everything else besides worship. 

This isn't a single occurrence, either - this opportunity presents itself every single week.  

It must be fought.  But how?

With my 18-month-old by my side, it means I don't let his 5-AM-presence frustrate me (because, c'mon, he's adorable!).  It means I take time to love on him, and then I intentionally turn my focus back to writing for a moment.

It might mean I only have 30 seconds of focused writing before I'm distracted again, but 30 seconds is better than zero seconds.  Because if I don't write now, the writing will not happen today.

Same with our worship services.  If I don't choose to focus on worship with our congregation now, I will miss the chance to worship corporately with our church family - the body of Christ - in a way that only happens once or twice a week.

I also choose to use tools - like our worship pads - that give our worship service a continuous musical ambience.  As a musician, nothing pulls my focus away faster than "dead-air" in between songs.  I use pads to fill the environment and subconsciously keep me focused on why we've gathered and what we're doing together.

Even if your situation doesn't allow for focus to come naturally, choose to focus.  Choose tools that help you focus.  And be satisfied that, instead of allowing for scattered-focus to simply "happen" to you, you're choosing to focus to whatever degree you are able to.  And that's valuable.


What about you?  What distracting situations do you have?  How do you help keep focus?  Comment below!




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