Faith Venture

Mahatma Gandhi wrote decades ago, “Formerly men were made slaves under physical compulsion; now they are enslaved by the temptation of money and of the luxuries that money can buy.”

Today, Gary (and many others) look at the culture noting beyond the temptations of money and power, there reside the insidious temptations of social media and deep conspiracy theories.

Jesus taught millennia ago, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

Where your attention focuses, so focuses your heart. Where is your focus? What is your master?

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Jesus once observed that Martha was distracted by many things. 

He contrasted her sister, Mary, who was focused on the teaching.

Sermons have gone many directions on that story. I’d like to emphasize the simple lesson. One that we all experience. Almost every time I sit to write if I’ve not prepared for focus, distraction surrounds me.

Be like Jesus. Remove distractions when it’s time to focus. Know what’s important at the time.

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Philosopher Arthur Shopenhauer observed, “If a large diamond is cut up into pieces, it immediately loses its value as a whole; or if an army is scattered or divided into small bodies, it loses all its power; and in the same way a great intellect has no more power than an ordinary one as soon as it is interrupted, disturbed, distracted, or diverted.”

When you pray, pray.

When you study, study.

When you meditate, meditate.

When you serve someone, serve them.

When you rest, rest.

Doing two things simultaneously accomplishes neither.

My Uncle Doyle, mom’s younger brother, loved the comic strip Pogo by Walt Kelly. I remember his introducing me to it and reading it as a child. Kelly was a master at condensing a thought into something meaningful.

“Having lost sight of our objectives, we redoubled our efforts.” Pogo

Shall we pause and reflect?

Once I hurried through everything. Even before I learned the Navy SEAL mantra from the firing range—Slow is smooth; smooth is fast—I learned the value of slowing. Focusing on the task and slowing down actually helps me accomplish more. Leaving stress behind.

Perhaps it’s time to stop, look around, recall our objective, and try easy.