Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix
your gaze directly before you. Make level paths for your feet and take only
ways that are firm. Do not swerve to the right or the left; keep your foot from
evil.
(Proverbs 4:25-27)
I don’t have Attention Deficit Disorder, at
least I don’t think I have ADD. Watch me when I’m doing research, writing, or
doing something that requires focus. I have been known to spend the better part
of eight hours staring at a micro-film reader screen. No, I don’t have ADD, but
if I sit across the table from you at a restaurant, and a bird or butterfly
lands outside the window, or someone at another table says something, or
someone walks by, or just about anything, and you’ve lost me. It might be for a
split second. I come back, but I am easily distractible.
I suspect many people are more like me than they might like to admit. What distracts them might be different, but it’s still there. I think this is what Solomon was talking about here. We need to be like horses with blinders on, focused on where we’re trying to go.* Otherwise, we’re like * Dory from Finding Nemo. “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, Oh look…!”
Not only do we need to focus, we need to work hard. No taking the easy, downhill path. We don’t even get to take the easy uphill path. We have to dig our way through the mountain. To make matters worse, where we don’t have to dig, we have to test the ground ahead, so we aren’t stuck in * lightning sand, or tar pits. The way is dangerous. A false step or a wrong turn can mean disaster*.
Of course, my main application of these ideas is spiritual, but it is equally true of life. We love to listen to tales of determined people who overcome all the odds to achieve something. We don’t hear the stories of the many more people whose dreams were as big, but who got distracted.
Were you distracted by the * in today’s post? Those were all the times my mind wandered off to something. Sometimes, it was to question the reference (What was that fish’s name? What did they call that sand? What am I trying to say and how can I best say it?) At least, those were the obvious digressions. Success at anything is hard work.
I suspect many people are more like me than they might like to admit. What distracts them might be different, but it’s still there. I think this is what Solomon was talking about here. We need to be like horses with blinders on, focused on where we’re trying to go.* Otherwise, we’re like * Dory from Finding Nemo. “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, Oh look…!”
Not only do we need to focus, we need to work hard. No taking the easy, downhill path. We don’t even get to take the easy uphill path. We have to dig our way through the mountain. To make matters worse, where we don’t have to dig, we have to test the ground ahead, so we aren’t stuck in * lightning sand, or tar pits. The way is dangerous. A false step or a wrong turn can mean disaster*.
Of course, my main application of these ideas is spiritual, but it is equally true of life. We love to listen to tales of determined people who overcome all the odds to achieve something. We don’t hear the stories of the many more people whose dreams were as big, but who got distracted.
Were you distracted by the * in today’s post? Those were all the times my mind wandered off to something. Sometimes, it was to question the reference (What was that fish’s name? What did they call that sand? What am I trying to say and how can I best say it?) At least, those were the obvious digressions. Success at anything is hard work.
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