Center Bullseye

Think about a dart board. It has several rings on it ranging from fairly large all the way down to one little, tiny ring with no other ring inside of it. That's the bullseye. Now, imagine that dart board is your life and you are located at the very center of that bullseye.

With that in mind, I want to take you back to yesterday when I talked about throwing the world off of your shoulders so that you can swim against the current and towards God. Hopefully you've had a chance to reflect on the state of your life and see areas where you aren't really honoring God the way you should. I know my biggest area of need right now is financially. No matter how many times I try, I'm just never going to be as good a steward with my resources as God can be if I'd only let Him.

Life can be very intimidating, and sometimes just trying to think about ways to start to make God your priority can seem so daunting that it's easier just to give up and keep going with the flow. I hate to inform you of this, but that is just a trick Satan uses to keep you where he wants you...which is to say away from God!

What I want you to see is that you don't have to do it all at once. In fact, you can't. Instead, I want you to start shrinking your focus until you are pointing at something you can hit. Back to the dart board...instead of looking at those really big outer rings, I want you to start focusing on smaller and smaller rings until you find something you feel you can tackle. For some of us, we may need to go all the way in to the bullseye and start there. But for every one of those rings in your life that feels hopeless, I want you to give that part completely to God. No take-backs!!! Just give it to God and breathe a sigh of relief that absolutely nothing you have to deal with is too much for Him.

Why, that's great advice you say? Well thanks for the props, but I can't really take credit for it. As Jesus had gathered His 12 and prepared them to go and do His work, this is the advice they were given:

Jesus sent his twelve harvest hands out with this charge: "Don't begin by traveling to some far-off place to convert unbelievers. And don't try to be dramatic by tackling some public enemy. Go to the lost, confused people right here in the neighborhood. Tell them that the kingdom is here. Bring health to the sick. Raise the dead. Touch the untouchables. Kick out the demons. You have been treated generously, so live generously. -- Matthew 10:5-8 (The Message)

They must have felt out of their element. Here their Teacher was wanting them to do His work! But Jesus simplified it for them. He told them to shrink their focus to a manageable size, to tackle the tasks that were right in front of them and to do it generously. He actually goes on to tell them to pack lightly and to be gentle in their dealings.

He wants nothing more from you or me! We are to look around us and deal with the stuff that needs our immediate attention. If we are successful enough at that, then He will guide us farther and farther out to the edges of the dart board that is our life. Stressing out about things you can't control doesn't make any sense, and stressing about things you can control is just keeping you from formulating a plan of attack, so why bother stressing at all?