Focus issues

My good friend Scott Mocha took this picture of me while I was watching the destinychurch softball team play last Friday night. 

Notice how the fence and I are in focus, but everything beyond are not?  If I didn't tell you that I was at a softball game, you would never know for sure where I was.  I could be at a NASCAR event, the zoo, at the pound looking for a dog, or in jail -- all you know for sure is that it's me and a fence.  You could not know for sure what's on the other side due to what the camera is focusing on.  It's a focus issue.

Life is the same way.  When we focus intently on something, it is easy to miss the details surrounding us. 

This tendancy can really get us into trouble when it comes to boundaries and guidelines that God has established for us to stay within.  The minute that we are made aware of an area in life that is out of bounds, we become acutely myopic.  All we see for a moment is the newly discovered fence.  "Why is that there?  What's behind it?  Why can't I go there?"  No matter how great life is, we immediately want to sneak a peak behind this new blockade because we don't like to be told where to go or what to do.  Because we are focused on the fence, we cannot see clearly what is behind it.  Since we are irritated by its mere presence, it serves to obscure the danger lurking beyond. 

Eventually, if we have chosen to spend quality time camped out close to the fence, we begin to lose our respect for or fear of what it is on the other side.  The idea that the barrier was put there to protect our freedom - not limit it - has not sunk in.  Instead, we decide that not only do we want something on the other side, but that we can handle the dangers that come with it.  We believe that it may be wrong to go over there, but we can manage the outcomes because we are strong enough, smart enough, or sneaky enough.  God will still love us, right? In our minds, the fence has become the problem instead of the danger that stalks us just outside the boundary. 

In time, we slowly adjust our understanding of where the barrier should be, pushing it forward while we remain on the same side of it.  You see, this is necessary if we are to maintain the belief that where we want to go is wrong.  By adjusting the placement of the fence, we sooth our conscience by telling ourselves we are still on the right side, but now we can reach what it was we wanted... never realizing that the angry animal whose chain just barely stretched to the fence now can reach us and steal everything that truly matters.

Boundaries.  Fences.  Barriers.  God's commands.

They are put in our lives to protect the freedoms God wants us to enjoy, not to limit them.  They do not enslave us.  They protect us from what He knows will steal the things in life His Son died to give us.  Turn your focus to what is WITHIN the walls because that is where true life is found and allow the walls to do what they were made to do - keep bad things out.

Comments

[Arnie McCall]

My guess is Jail!!Lol...However, in Jail or not that's still a brilliant concept. So, who brings our life into focus?? Is it our responsibility or is it God's?? The reason I ask is because so many times people want God to do something that he has already told them to do. For example: People want to know what their purpose is in life. God says “hang out me” and you'll discover exactly what that purpose is! But people don't do it!! And then say God doesn’t speak to me, or God has never told me what to with my life!! It seems as if people some times are asking the wrong question when it comes to direction for there life.

[Brandi]

You're pretty great at this blogging thing. Nice pic too. I'll find out next week about the job. I'm pretty much just looking to work with people. Alone in an office does NOT suit me. Take care of yourself. Thanks for the reference.

[Mocha]

Wow, great insight... Amazing really. It is funny how we focus on what we "can't have" and that becomes all we want, when that is what causes us to miss out on all the wonders of what we do have, or could have... This is something I need to constantly be reminded of, my nature is to push the fence... In doing so, I waste an awful lot of energy and miss so much that is right there beside me.