Focus

My thoughts are like an old school cartoon snowball. What starts as a speck gains momentum and magnitude as it rolls around inside my head picking up other ideas and thoughts until it fills the available space and crushes my mood like the tiny town at the bottom of the cartoon slope!

Writing or talking aloud brings the speck outside my head before it has time to amass itself, giving me perspective. I become much larger than the thought rather than the other way around! Even when the concepts are huge when brought into the light, my God is always bigger!

““For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Isaiah 55:8-9 NIV

https://www.bible.com/111/isa.55.8-9.niv

My husband has learned to forgive me when I ask redundant questions. From his perspective it’s already been settled but it’s that stray thought of whether or not you locked the door or closed the garage or turned off the oven that can eclipse every other thought making it difficult to concentrate on what’s really important. I’ve learned to text questions to my children when I first think of asking and while writing I keep a sticky note or scrap of paper to record distractions so I’m not trying to hold those thoughts inside my head. I really need to set a shortcut for my Notes App on my phone and have a few practice sessions with Siri until she understands me! My brain functions more efficiently in the middle of the night but my thumb typing leaves a lot to be desired at 2 am! And I’ve noticed that the smarter autocorrect gets the dumber I sound! I’m amazed by the phrases that find their way into my messages right after I press send!

I am encouraged by Scripture in every waking moment! “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”

John 14:26 NIV

https://www.bible.com/111/jhn.14.26.niv

I was diagnosed with cancer in the fall of the pandemic and I have found writing to be great therapy for “chemo brain!” The American Cancer Society does a thorough job of defining the general cloudiness that makes it difficult to concentrate, find the right words, and finish sentences. I am currently taking several of the drugs most likely to cause this condition, and writing and exercise are two of the recommended treatments.

https://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatments-and-side-effects/physical-side-effects/changes-in-mood-or-thinking/chemo-brain.html

But the one thing that has changed the course of all other things for me in this season is the Word of God hidden in my heart! (Psalm 119:11) I have made it my habit to read God’s Word daily throughout my life and have read through the Bible in its entirety multiple times over the years, twice in one specific year. Though this discipline may have seemed tedious at the time, I’m now experiencing the fruit of this labor.

“As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

Isaiah 55:10-11 NIV

https://www.bible.com/111/isa.55.10-11.niv

Focusing my thoughts has been more difficult in recent days but thank God, His Word is my salvation! He “teaches and reminds me” each day with the right words at just the right time! I am keeping my mind fixed on Him, and He does not disappoint!

“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”

Colossians 3:1-2 NIV

https://www.bible.com/111/col.3.1-2.niv