A Focus for The New Year

Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters Celebrate in the Lord! (Philippians 4:2–9)

4 Celebrate joyfully in the Lord, all the time. I’ll say it again: celebrate! 5 Let everybody know how gentle and gracious you are. The Lord is near.

6 Don’t worry about anything. Rather, in every area of life let God know what you want, as you pray and make requests, and give thanks as well. 7 And God’s peace, which is greater than we can ever understand, will keep guard over your hearts and minds in King Jesus.

8 For the rest, my dear family, these are the things you should think through: whatever is true, whatever is holy, whatever is upright, whatever is pure, whatever is attractive, whatever has a good reputation; anything virtuous, anything praiseworthy. 9 And these are the things you should do: what you learned, received, heard and saw in and through me. And the God of peace will be with you.

The Problem: I have a focus problem. I have a tendency to focus on the negative. The things that I do not like that are going on around me. This focus problem prevents me from enjoying the good things that are going on around me all the time. When my focus is always on the negative it prevents me from perceiving the blessings in my life leaving me anxious and without peace, and it has a tendency to destroy relationships and community.

Paul understands this tendency in the human condition and sees in the example of Jesus a way forward. First we are to not focus on ourselves but to focus on others. We are to see ourselves as servants and not stars. We are to do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but instead let Jesus be our example; though he was the most high, he made himself a servant to all. Second we must discipline our minds to celebrate the presence of God in our lives.

S

Where is my Focus?

Christmas Travel Negativity

I ran through the gamete of emotions this Christmas season. This was me the day we got out of school for Christmas break. The world was my oyster. I was going to get to visit with my kids and catch up on all the work I was behind on.

Then the reality began to present itself

Most of our kids came in over Christmas, but they came in at different times and places and all of our extended family wanted to see them. This led to a situation where we were driving all over south-central Texas during Christmas break. Fayetville to West Houston to get the girls. West Houston to BCS for a day at home. BCS to Spring for Christmas Eve and Day with my family. Spring to BCS for one night in our bed. BCS to Austin to visit Kellie’s brother. Austin to BCS for lazy day at home. BCS to central Houston where we joined up with Scott and Bry at Kellie’s Dad’s house. Central Houston to West Houston to celebrate New Years Eve and Day with Kellie’s Mom and Sister and to have our gift giving with all of our kids that traveled. West Houston to Spring so that Scott and Bry could see my parents. Spring to BCS for a coupleof days to decompress before school starts again. Today, BCS to Spring to drop Caroline at my Moms so they can take her to the airport while we are at work. Tomorrow school begins again.

Focus on What we hold in Common not on What Divides

I wish I could say I’m an easy going type, that I was fully present and enjoyed my kids and family, and all the traveling but I lose focus so easily. This is me when I came to that realization,

I get focused on how tired I am from teaching,

how I just want to do nothing, and

how shuttling between all these places is not the ideal for me.

It doesn’t take long when your focusing on yourself and what you want to become grumpy and a little bit miserable to be around.

This is me today. As I get ready to take Caroline to the airport and realize grades are do on Tuesday at 8 am and I have not completed my grading.

If our focus is on ourselves and the cosmic injustice of the human condition then that is exactly the way we are going to see the world and our circumstances.

So today, I want to draw some wisdom from Paul and his letter to the Philippians to help focus myself on the right things, so that I can experience a little more peace in 2019.

Jesus said if we seek first The Kingdom of God and his righteousness all things will be added unto us. I think Paul picks up on these themes and

Focus on being a Servant not a Star

Paul says in for us to:

The New Revised Standard Version Imitating Christ’s Humility

3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. 5 Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,

6 who, though he was in the form of God,

did not regard equality with God

as something to be exploited,

7 but emptied himself,

taking the form of a slave,

I think this has never been an easy concept to grasp, but with the advent of social media I think it has even become a harder concept for us to wrap our minds around.

My oldest daughter works in marketing for Disney and she oversees all media for Disney’s Fairytale Weddings and honeymoons, including its social media presence.

She says social media is all about building “brand awareness”. Facebook, Instagram, twitter and there like are all about turning individuals into brands. It’s the marketing of self. We put an image of ourselves doing something on social media, or we post our opinion on a blog or YouTube and if people like the brand we are presenting they give us likes, or they share what we are doing, so our friends become fans. We get to the sensation of being popular or even being a celebrity as more people like our stuff.

As an aside, I have noticed if I post a pretty picture of my wife Kellie on social media, with a nice comment from me I get hundreds of likes. If I place my blog post, I get like 5 people who read it. I’m thinking I can increase the readership of my blog, by linking it to a pretty picture of my wife.

I’m actually going somewhere with this. When we all see ourselves as celebrities building fan bases, it’s awfully hard for our focus not to be on ourselves, and our level of success.

I think this one of the reasons social media makes us depressed it we get to focused on it. Because we are constantly comparing ourselves to our friends who are eating better meals, looking better, and doing more fun exciting things than we are.

Focusing on ourselves is never a great idea. I think Jesus knew that when he told he to seek first the Kingdom of God and all the things we need would fall into place. I think that is what Paul is saying when he says do nothing out of selfish ambition and vain conceit; to humble ourselves and become a servant to all people.

I know that when I’m not so focused on myself I’m happier. I wish I could tell you I’ve got this one down. I don’t, I’ve got an ego larger than this state, but I want this for my life in 2019, because I know peace is found when I take my eyes off myself and focus on others, when I see myself as a servant and not a star.

Focus on God’s Nearness not Distance

The New Revised Standard Version Exhortations

4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5 Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. 6 Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

I’ve actually done better with this one at different times in my life, though it is much harder when you are not able to set your own schedule; and I have not found balance in this area since I have come to College Station.

Paul says we are to see life as a celebration of God’s goodness. To do this requires that we cultivate a particular focus.

That we focus on all the ways that we see God at work as opposed to all of the negativity that is always present and makes him feel distant and removed from our daily lives.

Jesus says in this life we will have trouble, but for us to take heart he has overcome the world. The world is filled with God’s beauty but also filled with the brokenness of his creatures. We can choose to focus on the brokenness and slip into depression and despair or we can cultivate a thankful heart that is always looking for the presence and goodness of God around us.

Like for me over Christmas break. I got focused on me and the busyness of my life, oh poor is me pity party, instead of looking at all the blessings I have of all the people who love me and my family and want to be involved in our lives. Relationships are one of the greatest gifts we have from God, isn’t it worth a little effort, even if the human condition means that to enjoy those blessings might mean we are tired? Celebrate! God is near! So don’t worry instead pray and count your blessings! If you do this you will experience the peace that comes from a relationship with God.

Finally Paul says

Focus on What’s Beautiful about Life not on What’s Ugly

The New Revised Standard Version Exhortations

8 Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

We are not to only cultivate a thankful heart but we are to also make sure that we meditate on the good and not the negative. We have to remember all the images and news that constantly bombard our minds are designed to attract people to watch them. Sex and violence sell. So we are constantly bombarded with negative and unrealistic pictures of both.

I was reading Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 earlier this fall again. What a prophetic message for our time. It is well worth reading again if you haven’t picked it up recently. Bradbury uses one of his characters to talk about books, and in it he says there are some that are worthless and some that fill our minds with thoughts that are truly transcendent. I think we have to cultivate an appetite for the transcendent and beautiful things in life instead of the profane and ugly.

The profane and ugly are easy and are always accessible but the sacred, transcendent and beautiful things require our minds to work and be stretched. It requires effort. But because they require effort they bring beauty, mystery, awareness, compassion, and love into our lives.

This is what Paul means when he talks about the renewing of our minds. When we focus/meditate upon the things that are truly good they are life giving.

In conclusion, it’s a New Year and a time for new beginnings. Why don’t we all strive to focus on being servant and not a star, on looking for God’s nearness instead of focusing on his distance, and let our minds meditate on what is beautiful not upon what is ugly. I think if we do we will be better for it and will experience a more peaceful 2019.