Keeping our Focus
A couple of weeks ago, I was blissfully standing in an off-leash dog park, totally focused on the raw joy of my Wheaton Terrier puppy as he zoomed wildly around the park. It seems highly probable that Winston Furchill is the Greatest of All Time. While there are plenty of dog owners who might think their canine is cuter, smarter, friendlier, or more athletic than Winston, they are quite simply—wrong.
Unfortunately, there was also 110 kilos of Burnese Mountain dog and Great Pyrenees dog chewing each other’s jowls while running full-tilt though the park. Or, to be more specific, running full-tilt through my left knee. Let me just say that given a choice, there are many places preferable to a dog park for rolling around on the ground in pain. I really don’t want to get into it in detail, lest the healing time from my Post Traumatic Dog Disorder be stretched out. Suffice it to say, I won’t be walking normally for quite a while.
In retrospect, I may not have been paying enough attention to my immediate environment.
Since I now have ample time to sit and think, I have been wondering whether this is a reminder to be far more focused in the year 2020. It’s possible we need to stay more mindful of the world immediately around us. As one of the almost extinct dinosaurs of 21st century society who still reads an actual newspaper every morning, it is tough to miss the mess we are in. Whether reading about protests over pipelines, impeachments, missiles in Iraq, the broadening of Medical Assistance in Dying legislation or cheating in the World Series, it is clear our environment is not getting cleaner or safer.
With most of you, I celebrate those in our Fellowship family who are engaging these and many more societal issues head-on from a Christian worldview. We need social justice, environmental, and moral spokespeople who express our combined voice to government, school-districts, and culture. We have been blessed in the Fellowship to have individuals and agencies who can both speak eloquent truth and actively love people in some of the most tumultuous aspects of our province and territory. As well, many of our churches are deeply engaging the anguish of their communities through endeavors such as Dream Centres, food banks, school meals, ESL, and refugee housing.
But as we enter this new year, please allow me to remind you that our missional efforts are still, fundamentally, about the mission of leading people to the one place and one Person who can transform us, the world around us, and the environment in which we live. We still need to focus on bringing people to Jesus, to the author and perfecter of our faith. There is a massive list of important causes we need to be involved in, but we cannot afford to ever stop paying attention to our most highly held value. Jesus is still the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus is still the answer our immediate world needs to hear, even when they don’t know the question. This seems obvious to me. It is probably equally obvious to you as well.
Perhaps, just as obvious as was my need to stay aware of the horse sized dogs running wild in an off-leash park. If you had asked me, I would have told you that “of course, I know I need to be aware of where the dogs are playing.” And I would have been wrong, because I self-evidently wasn’t paying enough attention.
At Impact this year we will hone in on Hebrews 12:1-3 as a reminder of our focus in 2020. Please join me in giving sole attention to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The environment in which we live cannot afford to have us lose our concentration.
David Horita
Regional Director, Fellowship Pacific