Matthew 15:24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”

At first hearing this seems very cold and uncharacteristic of Jesus. However, it displays something that was vitally important to His ministry that we often overlook, and that is His laser focus on what He was sent to do. Were it not for that focus, He would not have gone to Bethany and raised Lazarus from the dead, as even His disciples recognized. (John 11:8) Of course this story has a happy ending, with Jesus commending the woman for her faith and granting her request, but we need to be aware that sometimes the good is the enemy of God. If it distracts us from the purpose God has for us, then we aren’t to get involved, period. The thing is, we are finite, in sharp contrast to God. He could use anyone to do that thing that we see needs doing. After all, there are limitless things that legitimately need doing. At the same time, we are never to back off if the Lord says, “I want you to do it.” Jesus was hardly happy in the Garden of Gethsemane, but He knew that scourging and crucifixion were His task to do, and He submitted Himself to the Father for our sake. In that context, one girl’s demonic possession looks much smaller! We don’t have a task on the scale of Jesus, but we still need to be very selective. A major problem of the Information Age in which we live is information overload. Our news feeds are loaded with horrible tragedies and major emergencies, and we tend to burn out emotionally. That is a major factor in the sharp rise in mental illness that is so evident all around us. In a sense we need to ask the Lord for blinders so that we won’t really see the things He doesn’t want us involved in. That can feel really strange, even selfish and self-centered, but it is unavoidable given our human limitations. We need to be totally committed to Christ, holding nothing back, but ask and allow Him to show us what He desires of us, for His glory alone.

This has been an issue for me all my life. I was broadly gifted from birth, and have always had difficulties with focus. I guess that fits the description of ADD/HD, but I’m thankful I was never medicated for it. It’s just that there were so many things I could do, and often do well. I entered college as a Chemistry major and graduated as a Drama/Creative Writing major! Since living in Omura, I have had it asked of me, “And just what is your occupation?” Just in job history, I have pumped gas, cleaned buildings, driven large trucks, installed fences, and taken portraits and wedding pictures as a photographer. I’m a pastor, but I was actively involved in building this building on a physical level, and my income has been from teaching Medical English and Speech Therapy for the past 42 years. Oh, and in the Army I qualified as a sniper, but my job was playing the clarinet. God hasn’t wasted any of those experiences, but I feel I would have accomplished far more if I had managed better focus. I still have a lot of trouble with distractions, because I’m interested in such a wide variety of things. A major source of stress for me is that very variety of calls on my attention and my time. Age has slowed me down, as my body is currently reminding me, so that places even more of a point on the need to focus, to choose what I will do and what I will not. I need to be quiet enough before the Lord to hear His directions and not be distracted from them. His plans for me are far from finished, and I need to follow them and not my own.

Father, thank You for this strong reminder. Thank You for what You enabled me to get done yesterday. Thank You for Your schedule for today. Help me indeed recognize that schedule and follow it, down to the last detail, so that Your will may be done for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!