Maven’s gymnastics coach taught her about the power of spotting. By training her eyes on a specific point as she rotated, she’d maintain her balance. Great advice.

Lately, I’ve been taking my eyes off my focal point. When I see all these messages and images about A Long Time Comin’, I’m filled with this disquieting amalgam of wonder and worry. Wonder, that I have a book on the shelves and in the hands of readers! Worry, that I have a book on the shelves and in the hands of readers…

That’s what happens whenever I look at the creation and not the Creator. If I focus on my family, I’m overwhelmed by the blessing of stewarding my seven peeps…and then I get overwhelmed by the responsibility of stewarding my seven peeps. I love to cook, but sometimes it seems I live to cook. I can’t see the new house over all the boxes I have to move. Lunch dates, play dates, dinner dates…promising interactions I want to plan transform into interruptive promises I have to keep. We can’t position the star until we first trim the whole tree and the rest of the house.

In the blink of an eye, an opportunity becomes an onus. An “ahhh” into an “aww, shucks.” I wonder how the wise men felt when it was time to mount up and return home. How do you view your own life’s journey—as filled with pitfalls and bumps or full of fruitful valleys and mountaintop experiences?

It’s all about perspective. Fretting over “best seller or bust” puts my focus on the wrong place. I’m thinking about me, the writer. Not God, the Author. I’m looking inward, not heavenward. Eyeing the message not extolling the Messenger. I start to wobble as my world turns.

And yet…when I fix my eyes on Jesus, my focal point, I want to give praise, not look for it. I can rest in the well-doing for I see my weakness as His strength. I rejoice as a work in progress because I know He is the Finisher. There’s much to thank God for, much to seek God for. Balance is restored.

So when my soul looks back in wonder, my view isn’t obscured by a mountain of worries.

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

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