Focus

Recently I've been listening to a lot of books by Navy SEALs, and a lot of books on the Appalachian Trail. The most recent books I've read, Hiking Through and The Operator, both communicated the same key principle to complete an AT through hike, and making it through SEAL training. The task you are about to undertake has to be the most important desire you have at the time. To complete the ~2,181 miles of the AT, you have to want it more than anything else, because from what I've read, there are so many reasons to quit. To make it through the different stages of SEAL training, you have to want it more than anything else, because there are even more reasons to quit. Both are hard, and both have roughly the same success rate, only about 20% of those who begin either actually complete what they start.

I used to be a pretty big Star Wars fan. I have an FX lightsaber, and I may or may not have purchased a set of Jedi robes in college (if anyone is looking for a set of Jedi robes shoot me an email at: proverbs1824brothers@gmail.com). I think I was actually known as "The guy who likes Star Wars" by some people. I think the original trilogy is great, the prequel trilogy, minus Hayden Christensen, isn't that bad, and the first 2/3 of the new trilogy has been largely disappointing. I digress to this to bring up a line from Episode I, Qui-Gon Jinn tells nine year old Anakin Skywalker, "Your focus determines your reality."

What you are focused on will determine what happens in your life. A few years ago I realized that I was just waiting for everything to fall into place for me (more on this in a few days), I had dreams, but I wasn't focused on them, and so my life wasn't really going anywhere. I was in school, but I was waiting for the right career to find me. I was reading the books on masculine initiation, but I was waiting for the process to just complete itself. In all honesty, my focus was on how life wasn't going how I thought it should go, and my reality was that things continued to not go the way they were intended to. It took hitting the lowest point of my life for me to realize that my focus needed to change.

My focus has changed, and as a result my reality is also changing. I've started to narrow my focus, and create clear paths to attain the goals. I've been seeking advice from those within the field I'm wanting to pursue, asking what steps I can take now to be more prepared for when it's time to knock on the door. I still get distracted at times, YouTube is a lot easier to focus on than Hebrew vocab, scrolling through Facebook is a lot less demanding than focusing on how my life verse can shape my future, and researching hiking gear is much less stressful than looking at how to better do life and ministry with my brothers. Half of these things are good and worth pursuing (maybe 2/3, hiking gear is really cool, and it helps me to escape and clear my head) but when they distract me from what is best, it groups me into the 80% who start and quit.


Fight the lion, 1 Peter 5.1-11

TO GOD ALONE BE THE GLORY!