Singular Focus: Part 2

Something that went unsaid in that first part was "how" Curly came to recognize that one voice. What was the distinguishing characteristic of that voice. This clip below gets into that idea more:

Finding our true path in life, allowing the voice of God (Reign of God) to bring us into our true purpose, is just like this clip above. How did this man know how to make the right choice? Does it even sound like there was a choice to be made? Not really. There was a deep joy that was steering his course. Something pounding at the door of his heart. Jesus explained it just the same way:

Mat 13:44-46  “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.  (45)  “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls,  (46)  who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

...and if I dare risk a more controversial source, I will quote Jesus from the Gospel of Thomas:

(8) And he said, "The man is like a wise fisherman who cast his net into the sea and drew it up from the sea full of small fish. Among them the wise fisherman found a fine large fish. He threw all the small fish back into the sea and chose the large fish without difficulty. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear."

Gaining a singular focus upon our true purpose in life is not a disciplined affair at it's core. Due to the goodness of God, the core of finding our true purpose is in embracing the path arising out of the deep joy of the heart. But deep joy is not the same as pleasant distractions. Often we seek out pleasant distractions to avoid making the changes required to bring us into deep and lasting joy. Again, nobody else can tell us what our unique purpose is in life. Without dropping our own anchor into the depths of our own hearts, we will always be tossed about by the storms of life.

Does Robbin William's character seem to have given up on being a baseball fan? Far from it, but he did place it in it's proper place of priority. What is he showing Matt Damon's character "Will"? 1)That yes, he is a huge baseball fan, and 2) there are things far more important than that "damn game". These two things are not contradictory, but complementary. Our unique interests in life are good, they only become a problem when we seek to distract ourselves from our true purpose through them. These lesser "joys" in life are what William Blake wrote about in his short poem "Eternity":

"He who binds to himself a joy,

does the winged life destroy.

He who kisses a joy as it flies,

lives in eternity's sunrise."

Our confusion about the meaning and purpose of life, does not come about from the way the world is, but from the way that we have learned to interact with it, from what we have learned to expect from it.

It is ironic that the more we run around seeking "happiness" in pleasant distractions, the further we stray from real joy in life. When we begin to see this, we begin to realize that: "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (1John 1:5). Life is a tool, like a knife. If it is cutting our hand, we should stop holding it backwards. It isn't productive to blame God, or the knife, nor to give up carving out our true place in the world. Let's just acknowledge where the problem lies, hold the knife properly, and move on. I often grab the knife by the blade and blame the knife for the inevitable injury. Sooner or later though, I end up confessing the truth of the matter. The goodness of God and the goodness of life beckon me back to reality.

As Meister Eckhart said:

"God is at home, it is we that have gone out for a walk."