SHIFT OUR FOCUS

SPRINKLE

There’s a bird on the roof below me

Knows nothing about buying things

About looking good and successful living

Or the ads that the pop star sings

There’s a tree, blowing in there breeze

Waiting for its buds to bloom

There’s life confined to what life’s about

Contracting in a mother’s womb

 

There’s two magpies feeding their families

That’s supposed to prophecy joy

But there isn’t three, there isn’t four

I don’t know if you’re a girl or a boy

And they’re oblivious to the sounds of the city

They live far from the clutter and fuss

These noises we’ve made to distance our souls

From these things that are happening to us

 

There’s you and me and someone else

And the knotting of the ties that bind

There’s awe and wonder and fascination

And the blessing of this life of mine

I’m waiting on the world’s most beautiful face

I’m leaning on the promises of Jesus grace

I’m never comprehending eternal love

But licking my lips with just a sprinkle of its taste.

 

Matthew 6 (THE MESSAGE)

 ^30-33"If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. 

 ³⁴"Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes. 

 

LORD SHIFT OUR FOCUS

From your own efforts to gather more

To the birds who have enough

From your own attempts to look good

To the roses in their springtime magnificence

 

LORD SHIFT OUR FOCUS

From the feeble efforts to change who we are

To opening up to what God’s grace longs to make us

From waiting until we are good enough for God

To having his strength made perfect in our weakness

 

LORD SHIFT OUR FOCUS.

 

2 Corinthians 4 (NIV)

¹⁶Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. ¹⁷For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. ¹⁸So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

 

LORD SHIFT OUR FOCUS

From the selfishness of being stuck in a moment

To the usefulness of living for the eternal

From the slavery of the things that we see

To the freedom of living in the Spirit unseen

 

LORD SHIFT OUR FOCUS

From the love we are craving to get

To the mercy we are passionate to give

From a holiness that feeds our self righteousness

To a Godliness that feeds the world

LORD SHIFT OUR FOCUS.