Maintaining Focus 2.6.2025

     And just like that; February. The “New Year” isn’t, anymore. We can imagine the end of winter, and Easter is practically just over the horizon. Much of January flew past in a snow-blind haze. The very last of what remained did not fully melt until yesterday. Monday it was 62 degrees. It is raining now, but by this time next week it could be snowing again. 

    Many congregations missed a week of worship at the very beginning of the year due to impassible roads. We are basically a month in and as the excitement of a new year gives way to doldrums of winter, we must be especially careful to maintain our focus. 

    The big game is on the immediate horizon. The Super Bowl has become an organizing principle for much of contemporary society. Sports like Basketball or Baseball which have elongated “finals” do not lend themselves to a big finale. The NCAA tourney will come shortly but the Final Four takes a weekend and the championship is Monday night making it difficult to plan a party. 

    Snow-bound days and post-holiday malaise lend themselves to a lack of focus and inattention to details. The cancelation of a Sunday requires one to determine what to do with a finished sermon and how to reschedule the work and development of upcoming texts and sermons. One is tempted to rework, review, revise, and recast in haste. This tends to slipshod editing and an overall feeling of hurry that makes for bad sermon writing. 

    We might describe summer as having “Dog Days” surely this period from February to Easter should have some similar descriptive, reminding us of the danger of lost focus on the essential work of Biblical preaching. Perhaps we need an analogy to help us help us maintain our balance and direction during whatever we call this long, snowy, blustery, cloudy period leading up to Lent and the rest of Easter season. 

    Consider this period as comparable to driving your vehicle on icy or snowy roads. What are some of the skills or tactics you use to maintain focus. 

Turn it Down!

    We’ve all heard the old saw, about “turning down the music so that we can see better.” While this might be more commonly associated with older folks it pertains to everyone in circumstances of potentially compromised attention. You really don’t need to be tapping your foot or drumming the steering wheel when you are driving on bad roads. You may need the radio for information, or music to keep you company but during bad weather it is best to turn it down to minimize distractions. 

    How does this apply behind your desk? Perhaps you listen to music when you study. This might be a good time for a change to something you don’t normally listen to that does not distract you by inviting unnecessary aural participation. If you are a talk-radio or a pod-cast person, it might be a good idea during this time of year to change to a format or medium that requires less of your attention. Like bad roads long stretches of un-broken time wear on our attention, our eyes fall, and things get out of control. 

Terminate Distractions!

    None of us focus on our phones when we drive. (😯) Except for text messages. GPS. News. Facebook. Snowy roads are the perfect time to turn your phone off or down and keep it in your pocket. You don’t want to risk losing everything to respond lol to something only marginally funny. 

    And the same sort of thing happens in the Study. We keep Email, messaging, and Social Media open allowing notifications to come at us like sleet, ice, or snow. This is a very good time of year to make some decisions about all these distractions. As a rule, Email and Social media should not be allowed to push notifications to our attention. Task managers and calendars should be given more latitude because they help us to allocate our time (and thereby attention) for better focus. News, chit-chat, and the distractingly inessential should be eliminated. Keeping a vehicle on the road is better than a tow and repair. I can’t even recall the countless times I have had to get the tools back out to work on a sermon I thought was finished only to discover that distractions had prevented me from doing a good job. 

Technical Details!

    Most of the time, most of us do not drive with our hands in the technically correct “ten and two” position on the steering wheel. Experienced drivers work out a number of ways to be both comfortable and attentive behind the wheel. Modern vehicles have many more buttons, switches, dials, gauges, and read-outs to monitor. The physical apparatus itself can be adjusted to find a more comfortable position. Our own experience and the overall “user-friendliness” of modern vehicles mean that we can change our posture without really changing our attention. 

    That changes in bad weather. Ice, snow, and wind mean my hands are at 10 and 2 from the moment I back out of my carport until I take the key out of the ignition. I try and adjust heat, ventilation, music, navigation (if necessary), and anything else that can be assessed prior to putting the vehicle in motion. When I get out on the road, I want to have correct technical control of the vehicle with my hands in the right steering position and all necessary controls easy to access. Not because I have become a worse driver due to a weather change but because the conditions require greater attention, and responsible drivers get back to the basics when the roads deteriorate. 

    For preaching and teaching that means paying closer attention to the basic details of exegesis and theological synthesis. On the production side that means keeping the dictionary and thesaurus open. It means setting aside time for an extra edit—not because you become a worse preacher, or have become sloppy during the doldrums, but because the evolving environment requires greater attention to details. 

Terminus

    We still must go and do even when the weather is bad. A missed Sunday and one or two more days out and then we were back to work. This snowpocalypse lasted around a month. The snowy conditions hanging over our professional attention will last until we start ramping things up during the Easter season. From that time forward time both inside and outside the Church will be dictated by holidays and events that will provide structure and focus. February through April is like driving through a snowstorm with the safety of the vehicle dependent upon our attention. Let’s take the time to do the right things. Be deliberate. Keep both hands on the wheel. If you turn down the radio, you might not only see better but hear more clearly the musing of the Holy Spirit guiding you beyond boredom.