Taking 5

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I went biking last weekend and was reminded again how important it is to focus on where you are going!  The bike has the tendency to follow the direction of your eyes.  I know this from experience.  It is really hard to keep going straight when you are looking over your shoulder!  Looking at the gate or the post one is trying to avoid actually takes you directly to the post.  I am told by my more expert friends, "Don’t look at the post. Instead look just ahead at the spot you need to be aiming for.”  Very good advice, except it is really easy to be distracted. Like the time I was so busy watching two guys eeling in the river I was crossing that my bike and I started to move towards them and only the guard rail of the bridge stopped us from tumbling into the river!
Focus, looking just a little ahead, not being distracted, or consumed by something, or afraid of a looming post…. There’s some lessons in this, some thoughts to ponder but to do so takes time – it takes 5. A pause, a moment to refocus on what is really important before heading off again.  This is the idea, behind the title of my blog – TAKE 5 – taking a moment, that five minute break, that pause to breathe, to stop and reflect on what is important, to refocus not on a what but a who.  Taking 5 to reconnect with God. “My eyes are on you, Lord” the psalmist wrote. Jesus encouraged his disciples to “watch and pray”.  To watch what? To watch him. To see God, to see God at work in our daily activity – what I can see I will follow.  Where my focus is there will go my energy.      

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