Where is your Focus?

Many of you may know that I was involved in law enforcement as a chaplain a few years back. Over the course of time you hear stories. This one that I am about to share is one of my favorites. I was listening to a K-9 officer tell me of how they train drug dogs. They find a litter of puppys, and throw a drug filled tennis ball in to the room. The dog that pays more attention to the ball is the one they select to train. Simple, right? After years of being trained with tennis balls laced with various drugs, a dog can sniff out an asprin! A nearby department decided one day to do a random drug search at a local school. As the dog walked through the parking lot, he about came unglued and "hit" on a particular car. The officer notified the principle, and the car's owner was identified. Pulling him out of class, the officers grilled him about what was in his trunk, and vowed that if he co-operated, it would go better for him. The student denied everything, and was even in tears suggesting his innocence. But upon opening the trunk expecting a solid drug find because the dog was always right, officers were shocked to find that the car was filled not with drugs.....but tennis balls. The kid was the school's star tennis player!
What happened that day is a mirror image of most of our lives. Somewhere along the line, we loose our focus and forget what is really important. You may have met all of your educational goals, and family seems to be doing pretty well. Your job might even give you a great amount of satisfaction. But if you neglect your spiritual life, you will miss out on how God wants to operate in your life. Remember, it is not about what you do, but rather who you are becoming that is important. We must keep our focus on becoming more like Jesus, and not allow the "tennis balls" of life to distract us. Pastor Jory