A Center Driven Life

I was walking along a beautiful beach last month, thinking and praying, when three words kept repeating in my mind. "Focused - Centered - Integrated." Here is what I think they mean, what I think the Lord was trying to say to me.

Focused: My focus should be Jesus and His Kingdom. I must know David's "one thing" (to behold the beauty of the Lord-Psalm 27:4) and Paul's "one thing" (to press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus - Phil 3:13-14). Together these two goals are really only one thing; a life focused on knowing and loving God
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Centered: All of my life (inner and outer, private and public) should be directed from the center, from my one focus. It is all to easy to be influenced and directed by surrounding stimuli and distractions rather than from the inner direction from my core values and the Spirit of God. I do not believe that life can be lived alone and withdrawn; the outer world must be engaged, challenged, confronted and penetrated. But it must be done from and out of a strong center with one Focus. A strong journey inward must direct the journey outward.

A centered person is also someone who is a peace, not fearful in the storms. Jesus slept in the boat during the storm because He was centered in the Father.

Integrated: All of my life should be integrated with my center and focus. My heart can be so divided; fragmented like a multi-colored kaleidoscope. If a double minded man is unstable in all his ways (James 1:8), how much more so a man of many conflicted and divergent parts. I find that my life sometimes seem divided into separate parts - home, church, work, private time - that are not integrated as one consistent life. My constant prayer is and must be from Psalm 86:11 - " unite my heart to fear your name."

Father, I pray for a renewed God-ward focus, a centered personality, and an integrated life to glorify Christ always and in everything.

Amen.