Bringing to Focus

I’m not sure where to go with the blog this week.  There have been a couple of ideas kicking around in what’s left of my brain the past couple of days, but nothing much has gelled yet.

Let’s see.  Yesterday was the culmination of having a broken tooth for several days, and having to make adjustments to how I ate and carried on some of life’s normal activities.  Then there was the man I saw at a Quik Trip that was truly a big man…broad at the shoulders, quite a bit taller than I, and a nice person who excused himself as he and I arrived at the entrance approximately together.  He reminded me of that old Jimmy Dean song, “Big John.”

Then there was choir practice.  I’m in a choir that will be doing “The Messiah” in about 6 weeks.  The music is challenging; the emotions are running high; the message of the oratorio is thrilling.  And there was the storm of storms off the East Coast…we have no relatives out there, but know some people who were in the path of the storm.  And of course, there is the election and all of the politics, haggling, maneuvering, and posturing that goes with all of that.

So, all in all a truly mixed bag of things spinning in my head, trying to make an exit of some kind.  And I’m in a kind of quandary regarding whether to give any of them more than the cursory time of day.  Sometimes, you see, all of these things just don’t seem to matter all that much when compared with the things that we can’t see…the things that are eternal…the things that really matter (according to Jesus of Nazareth).

And maybe this is one of those times…when the weight of the things of life sort of take a back seat to the things that are ahead…the things of the life to come.  After all, I’ll spend a lot more time, so to speak, in that next life than I ever would in this.  The things that I’ve worked so hard for in this life really won’t do me any good in the next, except for the deeds I’ve done and the Name that I’ve called upon for salvation, protection, and rest.

Which sort of brings broken teeth, storms, and old songs into focus as things which may or may not be good…yet are a necessary part of life in the here and now; but really have no weight when I think of my eternal destiny hanging on my appeal to the cross of Jesus Christ, and of His recognition of me as a forgiven and adopted Son of the living God.

And therein lies the entirety of it all.