Focus matters.

That’s basically my current theme of life. Just like taking a photo on portrait mode, it shows how a focal point brings clarity, and the rest exists subtly in the background with a slight blur.

But what if we’ve given the wrong things the central focus of our daily efforts and, in turn, our lives?

My focus has shifted in so many ways over the last few years. With it, not only has a deep sense of satisfaction and purpose settled as adjustments were made, but also an uncomfortable admission as I slowly opened my eyes and awoke to the reality of imbalance displayed by misplaced priorities, allowed to exist for far too long.

I’ve realized the discipline of focus is truly one of spiritual warfare.

But it’s a war far too many of us are asleep to, disengaged from, and, as a result… losing. Distractions are everywhere, so easily shifting the important into the background without us even realizing it occurred.

I admit I’m easily distracted, not only because perimenopuase brain fog has brought with it major attention deficit struggles, but also the constant noise of life. The voices constantly vying for attention. The conflicting messages from social media, the news, culture, opinions… shoot, my own hormones and random thoughts.

Add in my own legitimate needs, the needs of my husband, four children, family, my Belgian Malinois, friends, business contacts, and co-workers; it is too easy to become overwhelmed and led astray off the path that, for some reason, is no longer clearly marked.

Through this season, a common prayer of mine has been:

“Lord, I know you go before to prepare a plan and a path, so let me not walk into rooms you haven’t already been in. Shut those doors, and instead open wide the way you would have me walk today….”

Maybe this prayer can help you as well, to quiet the noise and simplify the next step in your current season.

The next step, not the twentieth step—because we aren’t there yet and don’t have all the information yet. We will when we get there, but that’s not today. God’s grace meets us in the reality of the present moment because the battle isn’t always between good and bad.

Sometimes it’s between what looks good and what God has actually asked me to do today.

Through this process, there is such a sense of peace watching paths unfold without pressure or pushing on my behalf to make it happen.

I continue to ask, “Lord, where should my focus be? There are so many options?” It’s a prayer to reorder my desires to those He has designed.

To stop chasing every open door and start walking through the one He opened… in faith.

Not the door that looks easiest or the most favorable outcome, but the one that He’s walked in to prepare the room beyond for me in advance.

It is a prayer and posture of heart to lay down every good thing God didn’t ask me to carry… in obedience and trust… so I have the capacity to carry what has been set aside, reserved for me.

Most recently, the recognition of the need for focus has become of paramount importance because the enemy would love to keep me busy, scattered, and spiritually exhausted. Tirelessly working to achieve or pursue the next great accomplishment—and for years, that has worked. Each time I think I’ve surrendered and re-centered, the next carrot dangling catches my attention, and before I realize, I’m off on another conquest and pursuit of greatness.

It is exciting and thrilling. It’s an adventure to pursue the next goal and dream. As an Enneagram 3, I come by it quite naturally. However, when operating from a posture outside the submission and surrender to the Lord and his direction, my motivation quickly becomes about me. It shifts to pride, selfishness, and ego…or, on better days, remains within a desire to serve Jesus, yet I am pouring from a dry well, seeking to do things FOR Him instead of WITH Him.

Slowly but surely, through cycling seasons of exhaustion and burnout, I’ve intentionally removed myself from the hamster wheel of pursuit as I’ve always defined it. Through a season of stripping away, this recognized truth has settled itself deep inside my soul.

I don’t need to prove my faith by doing a hundred things. I need to obey God in the few things He’s placed in front of me and trust the process that the dreams He has planted inside will come to fruition in His time, will, and way.

Through this continual process of submission and a series of several gut level and soul purging confessions, a consistent theme began to surface in my journal, and from it, what I hope can meet many others exactly where we all may be in our own individual journeys.

I’ve come to refer to the gathering of my journal entries, writings and research as A Surrendered Pursuit: Aligning Ambition with God’s Will and plan to share excerpts of it here. And maybe, just maybe it will resonate with you too.