Heart Tracks - The Focus

    Recently I came upon this account from a missionary to a large portion of Africa.  She and her family had gone to Lake Nakuru National Park, which teemed with wildlife.  They were awed by all the different forms of life they saw.  Then, from their white van, they heard the unmistakable cry of a baboon, and saw the response of all the animals that heard it.  They seemed intent upon seeing what it was the baboon's cry sought to alert them to.  She said, "With curiosity, we inched toward the hailing sentinel who directed all creatures in one direction.  What could command such esteem?"  She said that she then saw in a nearby tree, a "huge male lion," writing, "That explained it all.  The focus was on the king of the jungle.  The humans in a white van didn't distract the animals.  Their focus was on the king, and nothing would change that.  Their focus even drew us to him."

     What does our life focus say to others?  Does it cause them to notice our relationships, our families, our jobs, our ministries?  Does the cry of our life point to something that is not Christ?

Our hearts and lives may be focused on many "good things," but they are empty things if we fail to see and focus on the one thing, seeing, hearing, knowing, and living in Him.  Is the Lion of Judah going unnoticed in our midst because we have our focus on everything and everyone but Him?  The animals, having fixed their eyes on the lion, were not distracted by anything around them.  We on the other hand, are so distracted by everything that is around us, fixing our eyes on one thing, and then another, that He goes unseen, unnoticed in the midst of our lives.  Because of this, we go to church services hoping to catch a glimpse of Him, but we rarely do, since our untrained eyes are unable to see Him in our day to day lives.  So, we settle for a few emotional perks, and then get back to the true focus of life.  Our concerns, sometimes even others concerns, but rarely if ever, His concern, which is that we know and see Him.

     I close with two scripture references and ask myself and you just how much they would describe the witness of our lives.  Jesus said in John 12:32, "But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself."  Like the cry of the baboon, will the cry of our hearts and lives point to Him, and so powerfully that even a "passerby" to our lives cannot help but have their attention drawn to Him?  Does our day to day life focus lift Him up, or push Him aside?  The second scripture is found in Luke 2, in the life of aged Simeon, who had been told by God that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah, Jesus Christ.  When Joseph and Mary brought the child Jesus to be presented according to custom, Simeon, who had spent his life looking for this One, took Him in his arms and said, "Now I may die in peace, for my eyes have seen Your salvation."  The eyes of Simeon had never ceased to look for Him and to Him.  Now, he looked upon Him.  Are such eyes found in you and I?  Where is our focus?  To what does our line of vision point to?  What do the two of these say to those around us about us, and even more, about Him?  Today, and every day, may He be lifted up in our lives, and may we not rest in a day until we have seen Him.

Blessings,

Pastor O