The importance of what we focus on, what we consume, and who we represent.

The Importance of Focus

Focus is something I think we can all agree is applicable to every area of our lives. Whether that’s the classroom, rodeo arena, field, court, job, or at home, the list goes on, but focus is something that’s important in each area. Focus doesn’t just have one appearance either. The focus needed on the back of the chutes is going to look different than the focus needed to complete a task at work, but despite how it looks, it’s necessary. A lot of times when making mistakes in different aspects of life, we like to look at them very surface-level and just acknowledge that we made a mistake without searching for the “why?” But if we did, we could always find the root cause being our focus. Whether it’s in our walk with Jesus, going through life, or being successful at what we do, focus is necessary and deeper than we like to think.

What Will Your Life Represent?

After living our lives to the fullest and, God willing, living a long, happy life, we will be able to look back on our lives and reflect on what we represented. As followers of Christ, there are two questions we can ask ourselves. Did I represent Jesus with my life? Or did I represent and reflect something else? But long before we ask ourselves this question, it starts with the most important question anybody could ever ask: “What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the Messiah?”

The person asking this question was Pontius Pilate, who was a Roman governor of Judea. Given this position, Pilate was the one in charge of the final decision of Jesus’s fate. At this time, Jesus was on the cross with Barabbas beside him on his own cross, with a large, bustling crowd surrounding them. Pilate questions Jesus, pressing in on Him to find a reason to execute Him, but finds no reason. So Pilate asks the surrounding crowd their opinion on who should be released. The crowd unanimously chooses to release Barabbas. Pilate then asks them the question of what to do with Jesus, and they all cry, “Crucify Him.”

Reading this, you may think they are evil, despicable, and simply dumb for this. But I want you to reflect on how you’ve been living, the decisions you’ve been making, how you’ve dealt with temptation, and how you’ve treated the people around you. I want you to ask yourself: Does your life reflect the answer of “crucify Him” or “release Him”?

Paul tells us in Colossians 3:5, “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.” Often times, instead of putting our own evil desires to death like Paul tells us, we cry out “crucify Him” as we give in to temptations and sinful desires. It’s so easy to look back on the story of Jesus on the cross and think about how dumb and evil the crowd of people were, but by doing that, we look far beyond what we really need to. When really, we just need to look within.

The Root of Sin: What Do You Desire?

I came up with this chain reaction that really is the start of all this. I believe that our focus leads to our thoughts, our thoughts lead to our actions, and our actions can be one of two things: to please God or to not please God. But what determines this goes beyond the action itself and goes way back to our focus and what we choose to seek and desire.

I love the sermon Pastor John Piper preached about the essence of sin. He talked about how we often fall into sin and think, “Oh, I just fell into sin and shouldn’t have done that.” When really, it stems back to our desires. His message was that the essence of sin isn’t the doing, but it’s desiring anything over God.

I personally think the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew Chapter 5) is one of the most instructive and deepest passages we get that is very applicable to our lives. Within this passage, specifically in verse 28, Jesus tells us, “Anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Right here, we get a clear, perfect example straight from the mouth of Jesus, reflecting the message that sin directly stems from desire and focus. Through this verse alone, we are able to see that sin isn’t even the act of doing something, but simply a desire.

What Are You Feeding Your Focus?

We can even take this a step further than our focus and go back to what we consume. If we wake up every day, grab our phone, scroll, continue with our day, scroll some more, continue with our day, scroll, and go to bed, we are feeding our minds and our flesh with something that is unproductive, distracting, and misleading. A study published in Scientific Reports found that negative content is nearly two times more likely to be shared than positive or neutral content. Other studies show that Gen Z averages 5–7 1/2 hours of screen time every single day! No wonder we desire things not of God with the amount of screen time we have!

So, not only is our focus important, but what we’re consuming is also very important, if not more important, because that is what influences our focus. I understand that is a lot, but I think it’s very important in determining our lives and our eternity. All of these little thoughts we have and decisions we make determine our answer to the question I was talking about us asking at the beginning: “What did my life reflect?”

When You Take Your Eyes Off Jesus

One of my favorite stories that I’ve talked about before and will talk about again is in Matthew Chapter 14, when Jesus walked on water. Prior to this, Jesus had just gotten done feeding the crowd of 5,000 people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. After this miracle, Jesus told the disciples to get in the boat and go to the other side, and He would be right behind them. Jesus went off by Himself to a mountainside to pray, and by the time He was done, the disciples had already gotten a large distance away.

At this time, the waves were definitely waving and the wind was definitely blowing. We don’t know how bad, but we could consider this a storm. But Jesus began to walk to them across the water. And imagining this, I’m sure Jesus was very nonchalant about it, walking very casually, but the disciples were terrified. “It’s a ghost!” they cried out in immense fear.

Jesus continues to be very nonchalant, but calmly tells them, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” And I’m sure they were all still a little weary after thinking it was a ghost, only for Jesus to then tell them it was Him. But Peter was the brave one to challenge Him, and Jesus simply told him to come. One word Jesus said: “Come.”

So Peter got down out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus. The important word in this verse is “toward.” I’m sure at one point we’ve all tried walking with our eyes closed, and some of you may be strangely good at this, but for most of us, we won’t end up where we thought we were going. But if we were to walk that same path with our eyes open, it would be easy as can be. Why? Because we were focused on where we were going.

The next verse says, “But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink.” So when Peter was focused on Jesus and walking toward Him, he was literally walking on water, but as soon as he took his focus off Jesus and onto the storm, instantly he started sinking.

So many times in our lives, we are Peter. Our life may not be going “good” on paper, but we have faith and our focus on the Lord, and we’re walking on water despite the storm around us. Then something changes: our focus. We begin to look at the storm around us, and we start to sink.

Where You Look Is Where You Land

In bull riding or any other rough stock event, we understand how important this idea of focus is. One of the very first things we learn is the focus point. For bull riding, it’s right between the animal’s shoulders. The chute gate opens, and you’re moving and matching the bull’s jumps and kicks while focused on that one spot. Say the bull jumps out of the spin and goes the other way. You would be okay if you kept moving and kept your focus between the shoulders, but you lift your chin up and look at the dirt. For those of you who don’t know, this means you bucked off.

There’s a saying in rodeo: “Where you look is where you land.” This was Peter. Peter was making a 90-point bull ride with his focus on the focus point, when suddenly he looked out at the dirt and bucked off.

In verse 31, Jesus goes on to say, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” What areas of your life are you losing focus and looking at the storm or the dirt around you? What areas of your life are you “of little faith”?

The Little Things Determine the Outcome

These are just a few different examples of how important our focus is in not only our walk with Jesus but also our overall lives. In these different situations, the focus maybe wasn’t the same intensity or the exact same thing, but overall, the focus is on Jesus, and that focus plays a drastic role in the outcomes that follow.

My encouragement to you is to look past the actions, mistakes, or wins, but to look at the thoughts that caused them, then look at the focus that caused the thoughts, and the consumption that caused the focus! Our lives aren’t just the big decisions we make and actions we take, but more importantly, the little decisions and actions made over time!

“What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” — Matthew 27:22