How easy is it for you to maintain your focus on any given thought or practice? For most of us, our minds wander. We get sidetracked by the demands of the world, by our ever-dinging and chiming devices, and by the random thoughts that ceaselessly stream through our minds. It is true for our life in the world, and it is true for our life with God. Because of this, learning to clearly focus on a single task is a practiced skill. If you’ve ever tried to sit down and pray, you know how this works. You are attempting to focus on God, then, without even the awareness of it occurring, you’re thinking about having curly fries for lunch.
My all-time favorite novel is The Stand by Stephen King. The publishers said it was too long, so they made him cut 150,000 words (500 pages) to make it more manageable. It would later be printed in its entirety, which made me a thrilled reader. It is now a hefty doorstop with 1,440 pages. How does someone write so much?
In his own words, Sai King says, “I used to tell interviewers that I wrote every day except for Christmas, the Fourth of July, and my birthday. That was a lie. I told them that because if you agree to an interview you have to say something, and it plays better if it’s something at least half-clever. Also, I didn’t want to sound like a workaholic dweeb (just a workaholic, I guess). The truth is that when I’m writing, I write every day, workaholic dweeb or not. That includes Christmas, the Fourth, and my birthday (at my age you try to ignore your … birthday anyway). And when I’m not working, I’m not working at all, although during those periods of full stop I usually feel at loose ends with myself and have trouble sleeping. For me, not working is the real work. When I’m writing, it’s all the playground, and the worst three hours I ever spent there were still pretty… good.” (On Writing, p.153)
King has learned the art of focus—approaching the task with unwavering attention and has become one of the most prolific writers ever. Can I focus like that? Nope. I’ve thought about what’s for lunch at least twice since we’ve been here. What’s this got to do with today?
“While Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside by themselves and said to them on the way, ‘See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified; and on the third day he will be raised.’” This is followed by James and John jockeying for positions.
Jesus said, “We are headed to Jerusalem, where I will be brutally murdered.” The disciples said, “Cool. Can we have a pony?” Like us, their minds could not focus on what Jesus was saying. It wandered here and there with all sorts of concerns.
The Season of Lent is marked by certain practices—“self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word.” (BCP 265) Although we should, these are not always things that we practice, so it’s likely that we’re not very good at it. When we should be reading God’s holy Word, we get distracted by the latest Stephen King novel to come out or whatever. Therefore, we must be very intentional in our time with God. Disciplining our minds to focus on spiritual practices. At first, it is easy to become frustrated—“I just can’t seem to sit with Jesus for an hour!”—but over time, we will learn, and we will then say, “I just can’t seem to not sit with Jesus.”
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” That is true when it comes to thinking about getting a pony, and it is true when it is about spending time with God.
Candle in a Cave 