Increasing Focus

The older I get, the more I find that I can tune out a lot of garbage and "junk stress" that keeps me from the really important, eternal stuff.  This is by the grace of God.  Tonight, I'm very thankful for that; my heart feels really glad that I can let go of a lot of the peripheral, temporal stuff of life that is probably what the writer of Hebrews was talking about when he taught on laying aside every weight and sin that entangles us and keeps us from running the race.

I hope I can keep focusing more.  I pray that I can keep growing in a life of simplicity.  Why waste energy on the things that do not matter eternally?  What's bugging me now is, could I have learned this lesson a lot earlier?  Can we only learn this level of focus with age?

So, what should a disciple focus on as he/she ages?

1.  Avoidance of controversies and arguments - This is spoken of in Scripture quite often, especially by Paul, and currently I'm reading Titus and found this admonition in that letter, as well.  This is a negative focus, but the positive would be to pursue those things that really matter... The fundamental teachings of the faith that are the major doctrinal truths that no disciple should compromise on.

2.  Making disciples  -  With age and experience and, hopefully, more wisdom from Him, how can we not want to pour ourselves into the younger generation of disciples, beginning with our own children?  I'm especially thankful right now that we will begin a new journey as we go back to Asia of supervising US students who will come to make disciples of the local students where we live.  They need to be challenged to make disciples cross-culturally by those who have already be doing it.

3.  Basic fitness and healthy eating -  You are a soul with a body.  Your body is going to rot away and die, unless you get run over by a train or such.  Don't let the body you have go to pot.  I don't know where that saying came from, but basically we should eat healthy and stay fit for the glory of God so we can keep making disciples and bearing fruit as long as He gives us breath on this earth.  Anything less is being very selfish, because if we grow old and fat and out of shape, we are creating work for our family and others around us who have to take the time, effort and money to take care of our bodies, because we didn't.  This affects kingdom work, because all that energy, time and resources could have been used for God's glory and kingdom.