Focus My Mind and My Heart
Focus my mind and my heart upon You, my attention always on You without alteration. (from Brendan Liturgy, Part XVI in Celtic Daily Prayer)
No lack of focus here!
Attention is in short supply these days. People wonder how long books will be relevant in schools as students can’t focus on video clips shown in class, let alone read a 500 page novel. The internet and 24-7 media are often blamed for this dilution of focus. Yet, with a myriad of choices existing from the cereal aisle to television listings, every place we enter seems to invite us to fracture our attention in multiple directions.
Even while I’m writing this piece, I’m easily distracted with the latest newsfeed. Somehow the desire for new information takes a higher priority than finishing this piece for a writing group. Nearly all this information has no bearing on my life. Still, I don’t want to miss out on some piece of news that I might need so I keep scrolling through repeated headlines.
With the multitude of foci my heart is torn, my mind is scattered. I’m not sure what it would mean to focus on God without alteration. All the external stimuli seem to make this impossible. In additional to online distractions, there are books to read, events to organize, errands to run, and relationships to care for.
This way of living follows me into ministry. Someone suggests a new Bible study or I hear about an event that another campus hosts, and I’m quickly planning how we can do it. Another person suggests possible partners and I reach out to see how they might be invited to join in this work - even if it means veering a bit from our current ministry focus. Little pieces here and there. Soon the work is spread over an ever growing field and lacks focus.
Whether in ministry or personal life, this scattered focus creates anxiety. I feel as if I can’t focus on God because if I turn my attention away from any of these other items, I will miss something. I will fail. It seems impossible to live in the world today with a singular focus.
Jesus’ disciples also had a lot going on. They were learning a new way to understand Torah, they were encountering many new people, they were learning unfamiliar jobs from this relatively new rabbi. I can imagine that when Jesus sent them out to minister in pairs they encountered many opportunities to serve, to preach, to heal. When they returned they were excited to tell Jesus all that happened. It would be natural for them to want to focus on the healings or exorcisms to focus, physical signs of success. Moreover, these were good things, right?
Even so, Jesus reminded them that they needed to rethink their focus. He encouraged them to not look at all the outcomes, to not focus on the power they have over disease and demons. Instead their focus should be that they are of God.
And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Luke 10:18-20
Jesus called his disciples, is calling us to go out and be in the world with all the temptations of being pulled in multiple directions while focusing on God - whether in the midst of the cereal aisle or in the options for ministry. Though it may seem impossible, focusing our hearts upon the Lord is not a practice that occurs apart from the world in a monastery—it occurs within the world where all the distractions remain.
St. Ignatius called such focus “holy indifference”. Not indifference as in not caring about other things, but indifference to anything not God’s will. With this posture, we are not swayed by other options. There is no fear of missing out because in the midst of God’s will, we are satisfied. It may seem counter intuitive that the way to not miss out is to limit our focus, but that is what we are called to do. It reminds me of the third book of Dante’s Divine Comedy - “Paradiso.” In paradise the spirits’ focus truly is on Christ. No one cares about their place in comparison to others, and in this they find a true peace.
“Brother, the power of love appeases our
will so—we only long for what we have;
we do not thirst for greater blessedness.
. . .
The essence of this blessed life consists
in keeping to the boundaries of God’s will,
through which our wills become one single will
. . .
And in His will there is our peace
(Paradiso, Canto III, 70-85)
