Obstacle Courses

Things I've learned during this particular course of obstacles...

When you're in a relationship, you can't focus on God too much. The more you focus on Him, the more in line you will be with His plan. If the plan is for you to be in a forever and beautiful relationship with your sweetie, then guess what? Heading towards God will also steer you towards each other. If the plan is for you to have a not-forever but still beautiful relationship, guess what again? Focusing on God will arrange for that perfectly. Don't be afraid. It's scary to put something so valuable in someone else's hands, and to take your eyes off of it long enough to look at God. But it's okay. No matter what, everything will be okay.

That goes for singles too, afraid of what God might or might not have planned, or if He's even paying attention, or if you already messed things up. Just.... just watch Him. You can't catch all of His signals if you aren't focusing and paying attention. If you were trying to learn a new game you'd never learned before and an expert was giving you directions, would you be better off agonizing over whether or not you really approve of the paint color on the playing pieces, or listening to and watching the expert and following their advice? Keep your focus in the right place and the rest will fall into place.

This is a principle I learned a long time ago and it's so simple but still really hard sometimes. If you focus on God, everything will turn out. I'm not kidding, and I'm not naive. I like how Pastor Charlie illustrated this point. He was being trained on driving a bus for a youth trip once upon a time. The man who was giving him advice gave him this gem: If you start to go off the road for any reason, just keep your eyes on the road. If you look at the trees you'll head straight for them, because wherever you're looking, that's where you'll naturally steer. Beautiful! In life we get so distracted by the obstacles flying by us sometimes. But if we focus on them, we'll end up somewhere we don't need to be. Just let God figure it out. Focus on Him.


Amen?