Stay Focused!

Distractions are most often cunningly disguised within our attractions to get us to abandon our God-ordained purpose.

“She saw that the tree was beautiful, and its fruit looked delicious…So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it too” (Gen. 3:6 NLT).

Stay Focused!

The mailing address for the farm we lived on in Enfield, N. C. was Route 3, Box 1. Enfield was divided by a railroad track with Whites living on one side and Blacks on the other. Springhill Farm, the farm we lived on and tended as sharecroppers was located at the edge of the city limits on the White side of town.  

When I was about 13 years old, Mama would, occasionally, send me on the two-mile walk from our house to Meyers’ Grocery store on Main Street to get something she needed to prepare dinner. It was a scenic walk that took me past the tobacco or peanut fields on either side of a long dirt path leading from our old farmhouse to McFarland Street. Strolling down McFarland, I passed the charming Victorian and Colonial homes of the White people. Mama always reminded me to be alert and stay focused until I returned home.

One Saturday morning, as I was leaving the store and heading back down McFarland on the way home, I noticed KC, a White girl, coming toward me on the sidewalk, accompanied by her large dalmatian. There was no leash law in Enfield at the time and the dog moved back behind her, presumably so I could pass on the sidewalk without having to step into the grass. KC was a rather attractive eighth grade girl who seemed friendly enough. Her dad owned Beavans’ Drugstore in Enfield where I stopped from time to time when I had a few coins to purchase an ice cream cone.

As we met on the sidewalk, she glanced at me with a slight smile and spoke, so I returned the greeting. In that moment when my eyes shifted in her direction, I suddenly felt sharp canine teeth tearing the flesh of my left thigh. There had been no warning bark. The beast just attacked ferociously! With blood seeping through my trousers, I was stunned, wondering, what on earth just happened?

I was unaware of the danger I was in when I saw KC coming in my direction. I did not know that even glancing at her and speaking in that all-White neighborhood was like taking a bite of the forbidden fruit. It was only a moment of distraction—a moment that left me bleeding and needing a tetanus shot! It was only a moment when I had failed to heed my mother’s instructions to remain alert and stay focused.

If Adam and Eve had remained focused on the instructions God had given them (Gen. 2:16-17); if Eve had not been mesmerized by the beauty of the tree and the attraction of the fruit, she might have noticed that she was taking advice from a snake.  If I had not momentarily lost my focus on the big picture, rather than being distracted by a smile and a pretty face, I might have noticed that the innocent looking girl was part of a package deal of forbidden fruit and a ferocious beast that had slipped back behind her and lowered its head. Mama had told me to remain alert and stay focused. I was bleeding because I lost focus on the big picture. If not, I would have noticed that the dog had quietly gone into attack mode.

I do not have time to develop this fully. But what might you be allowing to distract you from your purpose? Which of your attractions may really be cunningly disguised distractions? My mother didn’t talk a lot. But what she did say was packed with meaning. So, I challenge you with her words. Whatever your God-ordained mission or vision is right now. Stay focused!  

Focus Quote: “Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh.”

                                                                  –Philippians 3:2 NIV