Where’s Your Focus?

“My power resides in my focus.” - Unknown

One night I dreamt that I went to visit my parents at their home, and we were going to sleep over. However, I saw a chameleon in the room. It was tiny but it scared me a bit. It was staring hard at me. I grabbed my son and left the room thinking I’ll just pick another room. As I walked through the house, it kept following me. As it followed me, I got more scared looking at it. The more scared I felt, the bigger the chameleon got. Before you know it, I was running away from the house just absolutely terrified. At this point the chameleon was huge, much bigger than me, and running after me on two legs like a crazy reptilian creature. It caught up to me and I jumped awake covered in sweat. 

Aside from the fact that I was having a weird crazy nightmare about a chameleon, I took a lesson away from this dream. The minute I found a problem I focused on it. As I focused on it, it scared me more. The more it scared me the bigger my problem grew. This is true in life. Sometimes we have problems that we give so much attention to that they start to seem bigger in our eyes than they really are. In my dream, I was running from a chameleon that no one else seemed to be paying attention to. I was giving it power over me. This shows that what you focus on matters.

Where your focus is, there your power will be. 

If you focus on your job, it will have a hold on you. If you focus on your bank balance, it will have a hold of you. The harder you focus the more power you give to it. Not only do you have to balance how much focus you give something, but you also have to watch out what you’re focusing on. If you focus on God being bigger than a problem then you are in the right direction. But if you’re focusing on the problem being big you’re not going to see God in your focus. Just as something is blurry when it is out of focus, that is how God is in that scenario. Make your problem blurry instead of your God.

We need to take into account what our focus is on. We need to make ourselves constantly aware of what we are focusing on. Is it our past or our future? Is it our goals or our mistakes? Is it our sins or our blessings? Where our focus is matters very much. Sometimes it takes another person helping us realize where our focus is. So be open to advice and help. We are not in this journey alone. God places others around us because two are stronger than one. The choice is ours in the end. 

I had that dream at a time where I was terrified and it was a great reminder (and scary one) to not give my problem power or it would overtake me. I quickly fixed my focus and adjusted myself. I put it to prayer and I put my trust back in God. I claimed my power back by declaring to myself often “I am not afraid. God has got me.” Reading the Bible each morning reminded me where to put my focus for the rest of the day. It was a step by step process that I had to intentionally take, but it worked. Facing your problems knowing God is with you makes you the WARRIOR that you are and not a WORRIER.