One of my favorite movie quotes is from Karate Kid when Mr. Miyagi says, “Focus, Daniel Son, Focus.” Lent is a great season for increaced focus on God. This leg of our journey of faith leads straight to the cross; that is our focus.

I sometimes wonder about the plausibility of an unwavering focus as I’ve heard it said that human beings cannot have more than one focus. We cannot truly mulit-task due to the brain’s ability to only focus on one thing at a time. I discovered this the other night when I was trying to watch a movie and make dinner at the same time. In attempting to split my focus I turned on the wrong burner on the stove and melted the bottom of a plastic cutting board into liquid goo while leaving my olive oil and garlic without much sizzle. So, at least this proves that I cannot multi-task.

With this in mind, it may seem impossible to stay focused on God during Lent when our daily lives continue on as they did before the season of reflection and penitence. We still have jobs to work, homes to maintain, groceries to buy,fun to have…how do we fit in extra focus on God if we cannot multi-taskor multi-focus?

I offer a refleaction (again) on our Gospel tect from Febraury 21st: “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the spirit in the wilderness… (NRSV Luke 4:1). If we continue our lenten journey focused on a desire to be full of the Holy Spirit then our motives and attitudes in our everyday routines have a better chance of being Christ and cross centered. We might not be able to spend every second of the day consciously focusing on how great Jesus’ loving sacrifice was, or how in need we are of foregiveness. However, the Holy Spirit is working on us all the time so we can become open to the filling action of the Spirit; the SDpirit through whom we can truly focus our heats and minds on our loving and forgiving God.

A Spirit filled andSpirit led Lent to you all!
Shalom

Much love to you all!