What You Focus On, You Become

When I was learning to drive, my Instructor told me to keep my eyes centred and a few yards ahead of the vehicle. He said where my eyes go, the vehicle will follow. It’s true if you are a sharp shooter, an archer, or even a golfer. John Paul Jackson says don’t aim for the edge of heaven where you might fall off, aim for the centre. Where you focus, you will go.

What you focus on, you become – that’s true, too.

Let me give you an example. A child observes his father speak harshly to his mother. He may even see him be physical with her and he vows to himself that he’s never going to do that. The child grows up, meets a lovely woman who agrees to be his wife and shortly after they’ve married, the child-turned-man begins to verbally and physically abuse his wife. He doesn’t want to do it and he hates himself for it but as long as he focuses on what he doesn’t want to do, he’ll continue to do the behaviour that he didn’t want to do in the first place. Why? Because what you focus on, you become.

Focus on something different, something like Jesus and you’ll become something different.

In Donald Miller’s book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Steps, he writes (chapter nine – How Jason Saved His Family) about a father who had a daughter that was becoming involved with a bad fellow. Discipline and punishment didn’t work; in fact it seemed to drive his daughter towards the bad boyfriend even more. Instead, he started writing a different story and he gave his daughter a different focus. The boyfriend seemed to go on his own when his daughter started focussing on something different, something better.

The world is not short of people who can accurately identify problems but we need less advice telling where not to look and instead focus on where to look because what we focus on, we become.  

A few months ago, I had a vision where the Lord showed me several finials (the decorative pieces that that are mounted on the top of a fence post) in different stages of being finished. The first finial was shaped but still very rough and each finial that followed was being sanded until finally, the last finial was so smooth and shiny it provided a reflection. The reflection in the finial was Jesus. All of us who are in Christ are in stages of being finished so that we will be a reflection of Jesus.

King David was called a man after God’s own heart. I believe the secret to also being called a man or woman after God’s heart is to go after his heart. Focus on him, so that you become more into the character that you were created to be.

What area in your life needs a re-focus?