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A focus for life
By Muriel T. StackleyPage:
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Watchers of Oprah Winfrey’s show may remember the day a family of four came on the program, desperately needing focus for their life together. Their relationships were in shambles. Their finances were a disaster: too much money spent on unneeded purchases. They ate no meals together. Worship together? What on Earth did that mean?
Stackley
Here’s the advice this family received: Find a place that needs volunteers. Arrange your schedules so that all four of you go together and work for at least two hours at a time. At the end of two hours, eat together.
When that family reported back, it was apparent that they were changed.
Trying life God’s way
Couched in the Christian community, many of us have found Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life (Zondervan, 2002) to be helpful in talking about this subject. His framework of 40 days, addressed to “citizens of heaven,” includes these:
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Do less; do only what matters most.
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Don’t confuse activity with productivity; stay focused on one goal.
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Avail yourself of a fellowship of suffering, sharing, and studying.
Warren quotes the writer C.S. Lewis: There are two kinds of people — those who say to God, Thy will be done, and those to whom God says, OK, have it your way.
The desperate family of four who found their way to the Oprah show had tried their way. They were now ready to listen. They were ready to change their focus. They were ready for a new focus.
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