How can I adjust that focus?

March 4, 2014: How can I adjust that focus? Please “Share” this link to a new Precious Prodigal Blog Post: http://bit.ly/1nd1D8e

Lamentations 3:21-23 “This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning.”

I would have made a terrible scientist. Not only am I almost totally “right brain,” but I am also not able to get a microscope to work correctly. When everyone else in high school biology was dong the “oooh aaah” bit about the layers of skin or the paramecium they saw on the slide, I was still trying unsuccessfully to adjust the focus. I could blame it on the fact that my vision was so bad back then. However, trying to use the telescope on top of Mount Cheaha last fall proved I still can’t seem to adjust that focus in a way that will let me see clearly.

That’s only a minor inconvenience when it comes to a microscope or telescope. However, it can and sometimes does become a serious problem when I’m dealing with life and the trouble it so often brings. And life does bring trouble…so much trouble, in fact, that it’s easy for us to lose our focus. That’s what Jeremiah was talking about when he said, “My strength has perished, and so has my hope from the Lord.” (Lam 3:18 NIV)

It may be the heartbreak that comes with loving a prodigal, a diagnosis that has shaken your faith or a disappointment that has shattered your self-confidence. Although the causes may be different, the effect can be the same. We are so devastated that our faith is shaken, and we are totally overwhelmed. Can you identify with Jeremiah when he remembered his affliction, and his soul was “bowed down within him?” Is there something we can do to help ourselves?

For the prophet, the answer was to change his focus. He did that by recalling that it is the Lord’s mercy that keeps us from being consumed. I’ve always thought that meant consumed because of our sins. However, I read that differently this morning, and it changed my perspective as well as my focus. It’s God’s mercy that keeps us from being consumed by the evil in the world and by the heartbreak that all of us face sometimes.

And that mercy is available to us…just enough for today. But that really is enough because His mercies will be there for us tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow and for all of our tomorrows. They are new every morning. Knowing that the mercy of my faithful, unchanging God is there for me today and will be there for me tomorrow gives me the ability to change my focus from the problem to the problem solver. For me, for today, His grace is sufficient.

Challenge for Today: Can you, just for today, adjust your focus so you see the unchanging God instead of your changing circumstances? His mercy is the key to your serenity in spite of those circumstances.