7/4/2025
Last night was the youth camp wrap up. It ended with fireworks. They were spectacular.
And for just a few minutes our collective attention was focused upward.
Like so many others, I was caught up in the marvelous display. It occurred to me that I was smiling and yet everything about me was completely relaxed. I glanced around very briefly and saw the same in the faces of those around me. For just a few moments, our attention was off of ourselves.
The theme of the week was Mind on Heaven. It’s about having eternal perspective. One key verse is Colossians 3:1-2 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
I believe that joy is a gift from God. And that it comes from being connected with him… even immersed in him. But before we can be that way, our attention has to be away from ourselves.
Attention is where it is at. And the world knows it. The enemy knows it. The marketers know it. Because our attention is the lead by which we are controlled.
So we need to be very intentional about stewarding our attention. It may be more valuable than our time.
That’s a sobering idea, but the more I think about it, the more convinced about it I am.
How do we steward our attention? Here are a few ideas:
- Pray always.
- Take note of the things that get our attention for a few days and honestly evaluate what we discover.
- Think deeply about the kinds of things we want to give our attention to.
- Set bold parameters for what we give our attention to. Ultimately, we want to be eternally minded. So we set our minds on kingdom things. We generally won’t put crap in our bellies. We shouldn’t put it into our minds either.
- Be on offense as much as possible. We want to be busy with good things. Our pursuits should fill our time. Family. Work. Rest. We can be so busy with the right things that we literally don’t have time for bad things. We avoid idleness.
- More output than input. Just like we spend more of our time not eating than eating, should we consider spending more of our time not consuming content than consuming content? I think so.
I’ve just convinced myself that our attention is our most valuable asset. So I am going to treasure it like it deserves.