On finishing well (3): avoiding fatal distraction!

 Thus subject is focus, so let's try to, you know, FOCUS.

In Donald Sweeting's article, Finishing Well, where the author lists six traits of those who finish well, the second of these traits, just after "Christ-centered," is focus.

I suppose focus is a prerequisite for doing anything well, so there is no doubt then that it is crucial to finishing your life well. I should add here that when Sweeting uses this phrase, finishing well, he means "following Christ to the very end of our lives."

So I'll need focus, yes. The more so since everything about this culture, the very culture I've steeped in for nearly 67 years now, seems specifically designed to steal my focus, lessen my attention-span, and keep me always distracted. 

Neil Postman warned about just this in his 1985 book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, but he died before the rise of social media, which has only proven Postman all the more prophetic.

I think of Jesus, driven into the desert by the Holy Spirit after his baptism in the Jordan River, facing down the devil and his three temptations, each of which would have distracted him from his mission and thereby destroyed his mission (fatal distraction). And I think of Jesus "setting his face like flint" for Jerusalem, knowing all the while that crucifixion awaited him.

Jesus was nothing if not focused, and he was focused even under extreme duress. 

What are our main causes of distraction? First, I think, is time on our hands. Oh yes, I know, everyone is busy, but most of all still spend plenty of time flipping through the stations on TV or scrolling our social media feeds or trying to beat our personal best at Candy Crush.

Secondly, there are things in our life that we'd like to stop thinking about. We use distraction to take our minds off our worries or even our physical pain. Distraction as sedation!

And again, there is the pool we're swimming in. The commercial culture in which most us were raised is built to produce easily distractable beings. So to focus, to set your mind on one thing and not be turned to left or the right, feels like swimming against a mighty current. 

What can we do? Well, as a general practice, a discipline, we can cultivate long-term mental engagement. We might want to fast from social media now and then. We will probably have to increase our ability to focus by increments, and we'll have to work at it, but I think it is best to begin doing these things long before you reach retirement. 

I'm two weeks away from that blessed milestone, and I want to be sure that I have a focused finish. 

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Part 1, Part 2