Focused!

Ok - so without making this a complete Bible lesson, I'll start with my cats. :-)

Sunday was gorgeous - almost perfect (if I had a hot tub it would have been amazingly perfect). The snow covering the ground, and you can stond outside in just a long-sleeve shirt. It was amazing. But for the snow - the birds didn't think it was quite that amazing. I had about 10-15 cardinals outside my living room windows literally screaming for some food. So I obliged before I left for church. When I got home I left the door open so the cats could look out the storm door at the birds. Now it's not like they don't have a blue million windows to choose from, but they like to play spy with the door.

On any other given day I'm home, they like to get under my feet - or bug me till I sit down so one of them can have my lap. But on the days when the door is open they are focused. Not the "come see what I found" back-and-forth kind of focused. But the "I'm not taking my eyes off you all day" kind of focused. Needless to say, I got a lot of housework done and Maestro didn't get a nap. He's like that. When there's action to be involved with or watched, he's there till the end. Melody; however, knows when to take a nap. I want to be like Maestro when it comes to my spiritual growth, but I'm more like Melody. I want to hang with it through all the action and not stop till it ends, but for some reason my will in that area is not enough.

I'm in chapter 2 of Tommy Tenney's "God's Eye View." This is a writer I really know nothing about, but so far so good. He's wrote, "God Chasers," "The Mary Martha Principles," and another one that sounds very interesting, "Hadassah: one night with the King." I wrote before about chapter 1 - daddy lift me up, I can't see from down here - concept. Well, Chapter 2 talks about the Virtue of Zero. That Jesus (God) loves when we get to zero. When we get to the "it's impossible" perspective, His perspective is "it's perfect." He starts out with the analogy of trying out for a team. We can prepare, but if we don't make the team, that means we're not good enough. Well, those "not-good-enoughs" are just what He wants for His "God Squad." Just think about it - the apostles were the "not-good-enoughs." He talks about zero being the beginning point of change - like Saul's low point on the Damascus Road, "Thirty seconds in the manifest presence of God converted the murderer named Saul into the martyr named Paul. But he had to come to a personal ground zero. He referred to this 'rapid change' the rest of his heroic life. Ground zero has the potential to birth heroes." Has the potential to birth heroes.

He went through more: the parable of the talents (the fear of the one-talent guy kept him from receiving God's divine provision), Gideon's army of 300 (God saw something in him that he did not see himself), Jesus and the death of Lazarus (Jesus waited till Lazarus just could not make himself better), and ended with the less of me, more of Him - none of me, all of Him. And THAT takes focus. I don't want to be a napper - I want to be right there with Jesus. Experiencing life to the fullest regardless of money, involvement, marriage, parenthood, career, etc., especially when I'm at zero and all the way to overflowing. (So I can overflow to others).

A nowadays corporate church example of zero-to-hero is Craig Groeschel-led Lifechurch. They are an amazing church culture - one church, many locations. Their mission is "To lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ." (it only took them a few hours to come up with their mission) And they have the focus to do it. They are growing beyond leaps-and-bounds all over the country with satellite churches. They have also embraced technology to reach into the world without being a part of the world - they have a church in Second Life!

So - Q 4 U - What are you focused on?
(and even broader, what is GCC focused on?)