Losing Focus

There is a situation I have been watching with interest. Some things amuse me, and some things sadden me.

A bit of background. There was a group of people that caused a lot of problems in my denomination, and in my church specifically. They still claim they were in the right, but whether they were or not, they went about things in a totally wrong way, stirring up trouble, sending out malicous emails, etc. Eventually, it caused a church split, and they left, taking close to 30 people with them.

This group went to another church in town, different denomination. All went well for a while, until the pastor was voted out by the board. More trouble. They decided they would show the denomination, so all of the misfits who had left my church, and added to them several new misfits, went off to start their own church. By the way, my family is giving the church a year, tops. You can't have a church full of stubborn troublemakers and it last.

Where am I going with this? I have watched conversations on facebook, and heard remarks, and these people are going on about how God is working and blessing. I saw someone who stole a church from our denomination cheering them on and telling them it isn't always easy to do the right thing.

The right thing?! Marching off in a huff because the preacher got voted out, and they worshipped the man so much that they have to rebel - that is doing the right thing?!

I am afraid too many Christians today are losing focus. We want our own way, not God's. I have seen pastors come, and pastors go. Sometimes I felt it was their time to go, and sometimes I didn't. But I have yet to march off in a huff because the preacher left.

There is no perfect church, and sometimes we just need to wait on God, and do our part. Do I like everything about my church? Nah. I have issues - I still think they try to be politically correct and rarely mention our school to avoid offending the home schoolers - not a slam against home schoolers either. I wish they would do something different on Wednesday nights and rearrange the Sunday night stuff that is before the main service. But unless God leads differently, I am there to stay. Besides, I try to focus on the good points, which outweigh the bad.

I see these people who blow up abortion clinics, and wonder how on earth they got to that point. Killing the abortionists isn't the answer. We are pro-life. Not just pro-saving babies. Yes, I'd love to see every abortion clinic in the world close, but killing and blowing up is not the answer. These people have lost their focus. Makes me wonder if they are so caught up in a cause, that they don't care what they do, as long as it is for the cause.

It doesn't really matter what our cause is, whether it be saving babies, getting control of a church we want, getting a president out of office, or even sharing the Gospel, if our methods are wrong, and our attitudes are wrong.

What should our focus be? God. Making it to heaven. Lining up our life to the Bible. I admit, I lose my focus. I am so frustrated with what we have in our White House, and the things he does, and is trying to do, that I want him out, and I don't care how - not that I am going to do anything.

Lost focus? Oh yeah. It is so easy to point out what God hasn't done for me. All the bad in my life, and not look at the good, but sometimes the bad seems to far outweigh the good - or is that just my losing my focus?

Pretty much everything in life can look bad if we focus on the wrong part of it. Church. Job. Even family. Life in general.

Its like sometimes we are wearing those things they put on horses so that they can't see whats to the sides, but only what is ahead of them. But unlike the horse, we look at the bad. Not what will help us on this race we are in, but what will hinder us. Distract us, pull us down.

What is the answer to keeping our focus? There may be several answers to that. Prayer, Bible reading, and other things, but I think a biggie is surrender. I don't think enough people are truly surrendered anymore. Church splits happen largely due to people not getting their own way, not being truly surrendered. Marriages break up largely in part due to people wanting their own way, and not being surrendered to God's.

And unhappiness and bitterness all too often come as a result of not being truly surrendered to God, and what He wants.

And this post was not to slam the misfits/splittees, though they did inspire my post. Let's not lose our focus, and we have, try to get it back to where it should be.