Staying Focused on the Believer’s Path – The Tribune

Recently, mid-morning and trying to catch up on some missed work, I found myself at the bank’s drive-thru window.
Since we’d been traveling for most of the week, there were deposits to pay, suits to pick up from the dry cleaners, and gas to fill up.
Stopping at the bank, I picked up a drive-through container, inserted a signed check and deposit slip, and after returning it to the holder, I waited and waited and waited… “well guys” I said under my breath, while checking my email on my phone so as not to waste time.
Then I looked to my left and noticed the previously mentioned drive through container with the checks and deposit slip inside, still sitting there.
I posted them minutes ago. I forgot to click send!
It’s kind of funny when we forget to click “send” on the drive through window at our bank.
The situation becomes a little more disturbing when we think about how electronic devices absorb our attention and focus.
It’s a little scary to think about how our focus, attention, or lack thereof can impact our relationship with our Creator and our eternity.
Coming to faith in Christ is one thing. Staying focused and on track as a believer is another.
Failing to see the obvious reflects negatively on the brightest minds and most productive souls.
Not that I am either, but I am very busy and sometimes easily distracted. I recently read that your cognitive ability is significantly reduced when your smartphone is within reach, even if it is turned off.
These are the conclusions that can be drawn from a new study conducted by the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin.
The results indicate that the mere presence of a smartphone reduces available cognitive abilities and impairs cognitive functions, even when people feel they are devoting their full attention and focus to the task they are performing.
“It wasn’t that participants were distracted by the notifications they were receiving on their phones,” the report says; “the mere presence of their smartphone was enough to impair their cognitive abilities.”
Have we become so attached to our personal devices that we have forgotten how to look around and interact with external signals?
Technology provides us with a lot of valuable information, but our eyes and brains also provide it.
The human brain, which has been called the most complex object in the known universe, is in many ways the final frontier of science.
A hundred billion neurons, close to a quadrillion connections between them, and we don’t fully understand a single cell… and yet we can still miss a simple, obvious opportunity to… well, fill in the blank.
Eugene Peterson writes: “In such a world, it is not difficult to interest someone in the gospel message, but it is extremely difficult to maintain that interest.
In our culture, anything, even news about God, can sell if it is packaged properly; but when it loses its appeal, it ends up in the trash.
There is a great market in religious experiences in the world, but there is little enthusiasm for the patient acquisition of virtue, few willing to sign up for the long study of what previous generations called holiness.
Maintaining focus is important not only in the here and now, but also for those who follow in our footsteps.
I remember Ryan Dobson, son of James Dobson, telling this story… “My father, James Dobson, goes back four generations to his great-grandfather.
My great-great-grandfather was on his way to kill a man when he was suddenly directed to a spiritual meeting place in a small town in Texas.
Instead of taking a life that night, MV Billingham gave his life to God. He left his gun on the altar. MV was unarmed, but he habitually used a secret weapon later.
For most of his adult life, he routinely prayed for his son, for his son’s children, and for their children, down through the fourth generation…all the way to my dad. Whatever a “selfie” says about a man, this man was the opposite. With a strong sense of “more than me, more than now,” he prayed for people he would never meet more than a hundred years ago. Did it make a difference? My family says it did. Among other things, my dad grew up with an awareness of his place in a larger story. He knew the next leg of the race was his; the baton was his to pass… Who would fall in such a relay? Not me. When I grew up—I mean, when I was mature enough to be humbled by his selflessness—I, too, committed to intergenerational prayer.
Our involvement, or lack thereof, will impact our children and grandchildren.
The scriptures admonish us… “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work with zeal for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord will be in vain.”
Pray, live by this principle, and whatever you do, don’t let your life become so crowded with activities that you forget to press “send”!

Tim Throckmorton is the national director of community impact teams at the Family Resource Council.