Back to the acrostic I developed a few years ago for living artfully:
- Abiding in Christ
- Rejoicing
- Thankful
- Focused
- Unattached
- Loving
- Life-giving
- Yielded
We talked about Abiding on Sunday, then took a break to honor Sara McDaniel, June’s piano teacher, who embodied not only a lifestyle of investing in others but also a life completely focused on music. Faced with the challenge of a single mother raising two boys, she worked hard to put bread on the table: she had a full private studio, she performed, she taught at the college level…all music, all the time. Focused.
Focused: it’s the next practice I want to talk about. The apostle Paul was focused:
But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3.13, 14, NIV)
As the late Navigator Skip Gray used to say:
Paul said, “This one thing I do. Not, these 14 things I dabble in.”
As I was putting books on the shelf in our new home, I noticed The One Thing by Gary Keller. It opens with the proverb:
If you chase two rabbits, you will not catch either one.
The movie City Slickers with Billy Crystal is worth watching for the one scene between Billy’s character, Mitch, a 40-year-old guy in a midlife crisis, and Curly, the tough cowboy that’s managing the cattle drive Billy and his friends have signed up for.
Curly: Do you know what the secret of life is?
Mitch: No, what?
Curly (holding up one finger): This.
Mitch: Your finger?
Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and everything else don’t mean nothin’. [Sanitized slightly for a Christian blog!]
Mitch: That’s great but, what’s the one thing?
Curly: That’s what you gotta figure out.
What’s your one thing? What’s mine? I’d like to think mine is the motto of The Navigators:
To know Christ, to make him known, and to help others do the same.
But if you watched my life, would you conclude that? Reminds me of something my son Mark shared with me a year or two ago that I haven’t written about yet. I think it’s profound and speaks to this discussion. Stay tuned.
But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD. – Joshua (Joshua 24.15, NIV)
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. – Jesus (Matthew 6.24, NIV)