I have been teaching on Focus.

It’s what missionary Jim Elliot referred to when he said, “Wherever you are, be all there.” That is the first rule to focus. We can be present but still disengaged at the same time. When we are fully engaged with a right focus, our lives add value to God’s kingdom.

Here are some things that impede our being fully engaged in our focus:

1. Continuous Partial Attention. “CPA” is a buzz phrase describing a state in which most of one’s attention is on a primary task, but where one is also monitoring several background tasks just in case something more important or interesting comes up. This is what most people do with Twitter and Facebook. They may be working on something at their computer and at the same time monitoring the status of others just to make sure they don’t miss something.

The classic ESPN/Verizon commercial below is a great example of CPA:

Linda Stone, a former Apple and Microsoft executive says, “Continuous partial attention and multi-tasking are two different attention strategies, motivated by different impulses.” She says when we multi-task we are motivated by a desire to be more productive and more efficient. But with “CPA” we are motivated by the fear of being left behind or that we might miss an opportunity. Therefore we are constantly scanning for opportunities, activities, or people in any given moment. Warning us about the health concerns of CPA, Stone goes on to say, “More and more, many of us feel the ‘shadow side’ of CPA — over-stimulation and lack of fulfillment. The latest, greatest powerful technologies are now contributing to our feeling of being increasingly powerless. Researchers are beginning to tell us that we may actually be doing tasks more slowly and poorly. And that’s not all. We have more attention-related and stress-related diseases than ever before. CPA… sets off a cascade of stress hormones starting with cortisol. As a hormone, cortisol is a universal donor. It can attach to any receptor site. As a result, dopamine and seratonin, the hormones that help us feel calm and happy, have nowhere to go because cortisol has taken up the available spaces. The abundance of cortisol in our systems has contributed to our turning to pharmaceuticals to calm us down and help us sleep.”

2. Over-stimulated lifestyles.
We have too much on our senses. In addition to CPA, we have constant digital saturation and mixed messages infiltrating our minds daily. We live in a society of hurriedness. We eat fast, play fast, and even channel-surf fast. People look for caffeine to make them go faster and stay up longer. Then they need sleeping pills to put their minds to rest. Our bodies are abused, tense, and likely more in shock than we realize. Our society places little value on tranquility, quietness, and the simple joy of stillness.

3. Cluttered lifestyles.
Sometimes we just have too much stuff. Just clean out your garage and you will know what I’m talking about. Every time I clean out my garage I ask myself, “Why did we hold on to this stuff all these years?” I’ve got golf clubs sitting in my garage right now that I haven’t used in 17 years. And yet it clutters my mind every time I walk by them and realize how dirty that perfectly good set of golf clubs has become. But they are a nice set of clubs so instead of putting them on eBay I’m going to hold on to them a little while longer just in case I play golf again one day… just in case.

4. An overabundance of choices.
Just having too many options is enough to paralyze some people. They find it hard to decide on any one thing because they are afraid of making the wrong choice. There’s a scene in the movie Wild Hogs where Tim Allen’s character tells some bikers how much he envies the simplicity of their lifestyle. He says their toughest choices each day include: “Sleeveless or… uh… sleeveless? Do I [potty] behind the rock or over there by that bush?” I don’t think he used the word “potty” but that’s the daddy in me paraphrasing. My friend Jared’s restaurant only has four menu options. They have found that narrowing down the options has created a simplicity that customers can appreciate.

5. The lure of busyness.
Don Marquis observed, “Ours is a world where people don’t know what they want and are willing to go through hell to get it.” He hit that one on the head. The only place some people find their value is in just being busy. They feel busyness means importance. The problem is motion doesn’t lead to direction. That’s why so many people can be in a state of hurriedness and busyness and still be very unproductive and inefficient with their lives.

We live in a chaotic world. We have constant media saturation giving us mixed and changing signals. We’re surrounded by an unstable society… a culture with no absolutes. People and their lives are fragmented. People are disoriented. They’re overly committed. They’re exhausted. Focus and purpose are elusive. There are too many ideas for people to handle. As a result, they have the inability to discern what is a good idea and what is a God idea.

Which leads us to a huge question: Where do I start?

In Luke 10:38-42 we see Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus while Martha was distracted by busyness. Mary found that a simple life of intimate connection with God opens the door for clarity. If you want to make sense of life it all starts with close fellowship with God. The German Proverb says, “The main thing is keeping the main thing the main thing.” I think Jesus would be proud of the Germans for coming up with that one. Martha was missing the main thing. The main thing is a daily connection with God through an intimate relationship with Jesus. It was in that relationship that Mary found herself fully engaged and fully “there”. While in the same room Martha was wiggin’ out, stressed out, and vexed with anxiety. Even Christian service can take us away from an intimate relationship with Christ when we give ourselves to busyness over the principle of being fully engaged.

Wherever you are, be all there.