Focus

Let your eyes look right on [with fixed purpose], and let your gaze be straight before you.             Prov. 4:25 (amp)

So last weekend, Todd and I were looking for something to watch on Netflix that didn’t require any brain power.  I chose the genre of “Reality TV.”  People are weird.  People are quirky.  People are interesting to watch.

We were scrolling through our options and came to a show called “Canada’s Worst Driver.”  We’d never heard of it before, but for some reason, it piqued my interest.  Overall, I wouldn’t give the show a very high rating.  It moved along rather slowly in my opinion, although based on the fact that we caught an episode from season 8, Canada must not agree with me.

Anyway, there were eight drivers, and they were put through a series of driving tests, and the one who needed the least amount of help graduated and was sent home at the end of the episode.  They were all bad, but some were less bad than others.

There was a guy named Robert who stood out to me in particular.  He was a young guy, but he was afraid to go fast. In fact, he even got ticketed once for going too slow.  The announcer stated that what should take him 30 minutes to get to work took him over an hour.  It made no sense at all why this guy was so afraid to even go the speed limit.

One of the challenges involved accelerating to 70 km/h (which is 43 mph) while speeding straight for a large “truck” made out of cardboard boxes.  While driving at full speed, the contestants had to look over both shoulders, and whichever shoulder they saw the green marker over, they had to swerve that direction to avoid hitting the “truck.”  Each contestant had one lesson with a professional driver before their actual attempt.  Robert’s instructor simply reminded him to look way down the road when he was accelerating.  Robert actually went up to 120 km/h and was comfortable doing it.  When he stopped the car, it was like a lightbulb had gone on inside his head.  He had light in his eyes, and a smile on his face.

So what was the secret for Robert?  Apparently he was looking at what was going on around him when he was driving instead of focusing farther down the road.  I didn’t really think much of it at first, but the episode came back into my mind later, and I realized what a good life lesson it portrayed.

When we focus on our circumstances and our problems, they can be all consuming and overwhelming, but just a shift in our focus to the One who has the answers to our problems can bring peace to our troubled souls.

I love the message of the old hymn “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.”  The chorus reads:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,

Look full in His wonderful face,

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,

In the light of his glory and grace.

Such a simple concept, really, but it can make a huge difference.  If you’re struggling to find peace in your current situation, just try shifting your focus to Jesus who isn’t surprised or overwhelmed by your circumstances, but desires to help you through them.

So, Robert was the first of the drivers in season eight to graduate and get his license back.  He was a relatively quick fix. Some of the other contestants – not so much.