Clear It Out

You’ve been in the flow, right? The flow is that state you are in when you are totally emersed in a project or task and everything else seems meaningless in that moment. A bomb could go off nearby and you may not even notice. Maybe you work with your hands and you are “high” on energy making big progress on a job. Or possibly you are an office/knowledge worker and you have finally been able to break away and put massive attention on a particularly important piece of work. Whatever your situation, your attention in a time like that is clear and undivided on the task at hand.

For over a year during college, I worked for a local roofing contractor in order to pay for tuition and books. Many days were filled with various tasks doing this or that and not dedicated to a single job. Those days were rough because I didn’t feel like I was accomplishing much. Contrast that with days where I arrived at a job and there was nothing but a big open field of the roof to cover. I loved those days because we could put down a lot of roofing material and I was paid piece-work so it meant a bigger check! I could work tirelessly on those days and the hours would fly by. Well, at least until the inevitable afternoon Florida thunderstorm rolled in and ended our day early.

My experience roofing illustrates an important lesson regarding undivided attention. We can see big rewards when our path is clear for us to take massive action toward a single goal. Clearing our path as much and as often as possible is then undeniably what we ought to be doing. Turning to scripture we see a connected concept from the words of Jesus. In Matthew 6:22 and 23 we have the following:

“The light of the body is the eye: if therefore your eye is single, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”

To break this down simply, the eye is the portal for light but if that portal is smudged or partially blocked then the light that gets in is not whole but partial or divided. In fact, the very next verse (24) goes on to warn against having divided attention in your spiritual life. If we continue on without clearing the way for us to have undivided focus on our objectives, then we delay or derail ourselves from reaching that “light” that is at the end of the tunnel and instead stay in the “darkness” for far too long.

The call to action here is simple and straightforward. Do some clearing. Clear out those things that are blocking your vision from seeing that goal accomplished. Clear your path of unprofitable tasks so you can apply massive action toward what you know should have your undivided attention. On our next blog, we can explore how to do this.