Thursday, July 22

"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
—Matthew 6:21

Understanding "focus" is easy when we think in photographic terms. Suppose we want to take a picture of a beautiful cluster of flowers,  but when we point our camera at the cluster and look through the lens, we can't see the details we so want to capture.

Instead, we see a mass of colors and all the objects around the flowers. We can't isolate the curl of the leaves, the panoply of shapes, the intricacies of the petals, the subtle gradations of texture and color. But if we zoom in and focus the lens, the image we want appears immediately.

Finding soul focus works on the same principle. We need to zoom our attention in on that inner core of our being where God dwells. When we isolate the soul from all the other competing images, the soul can be seen and felt in all its wonder and winsome-ness.

So how can you focus on your heart, zoom in on your soul? One very simple and serious way to begin is to turn off the television. Better yet, get rid of it! But, if that seems unthinkable, at least turn it off. Turn it off for whole evenings and days at a time. While you're at it, turn off the radio, the CD player, the computer, and unplug your phone. 

Begin to find your focus by having a rendezvous with silence. Take a walk, write in a journal, sit for ½ hour feeling Jesus at your side, pray, meditate, and ask yourself over and over again, "Where is my heart?" "Where is my heart?" "Where is my heart?" 

When you have figured out where your heart really is, you will have found your treasure. Even more, you will have found in the quiet and secret place your hidden soul, and in the silence, your soul will speak to you the words of God.

O God, stir my spirit to drop down into the silent place where the contents of my heart can be clearly seen and the treasure of my life fully known.

These Signposts originally appeared on explorefaith in 2003.