Whoa

So I have this totally bad habit of reading/seeing something that is totally convicting and saying to mayself, "WHOA!! I should totally blog about this!!" and....2 weeks later or more no blog....hmm funny how i allow life to get in the way of something so awesome and worth sharing. BUT tonight despite how tired i am physically (and emotionally for that matter) I'm not allowing life (or sleep) to get in the way!!

I just finished this awesome book called The Prinicple of the Path: How to get from where you are to where you want to be. By Andy Stanley. And it was FULL of moments where I thought "Whoa!!" Just to give you a lil' synopsis or whatever of the book, Stanley uses life experiences (his and the people's around him) to illustrate his principle titled "The Principle of the Path". Basically Stanley says there are several paths available to us that we make based on the decisions and choices leading up to that path as well as our journey down it. So thats the basic jist of it, and for the record if you are someone who feels like you don't know how to get from where you are to where you want to be in ANY area of your life, Stanley's book is super convicting, and an easy read bc the guy is just flat out funny, which is a huge bonus.

Anyway the moment that stuck out the most to me is when Stanley is talking about where we focus our attention. I think the chapter was titled "Attention Retention". In our lives we have all these things and people we pass by and interact with that are constantly grabbing our attention. I can totally relate to this in an academic manner by busting out a little bit of what i've learned in my 4.5 years of college as an advertising major. The average person is exposed to about 1600 advertising messages a day and half of them you don't even acknowledge because it could just be that sweet new Smash shirt your friend is wearing. And without you even thinking twice it totally just caught your attention with its quirky message about "Idawohio: the great potato state".

Stanley sets the stage for this chapter by talking about an experience with his Driver's Ed instructor who said, "Don't look at the cars that are passing you, and don't look at the cars you ar passing. If you look that way you'll tend to steer that way as well." The first time I read this I definitely gave the, "huh?" thought to it. But as you read on Stanly clarifies for you (thank goodness or this may have been a wasted chapter for my thick head) and his basic theme for the chapter shines through as he states, "What gets our attention determines our direction and, ultimately, our destination."

That was my "Whoa!?!" moment right there...i was like holy buckets....he's right...

So if thats all there was to it, thats all I had to do was say I want "this" to be my focus and if i keep my eyes on the prize i'll be just peachy all the time.

Yeah right!?! And thats what i love about where Stanley went next with this. He went on to discuss how there are going to be several distractions or attention grabbers along that path that you are choosing to follow, like multiple exits just trying to draw you off the road with there flashy lights, "extra clean" restrooms, and "good just like momma made it" restaurants. The beginning paragraph of this section of this chapter was awesome and I wouldn't be able to paraphrase it and give it justice so i'm gonna just put it right on here, and hopefully Mr. Stanley won't get mad at me for plagiarism here.

"Think about the following sentences: 'As soon as i waked in, it grabbed my attention.' or 'When she walked into the room, she captured my attention.' Have you ever had something or someone grab or capture you attention? Think about the terms we use to describe this phenomenon: Grab. Capture. There is a lot of emotion associated with those two terms. And understandably so. If you ever had anything grab you attention, there was probably a good bit of emotion associated with that moment. You may be driving something that grabbed your attention. You may be living in something that grabbed your attention. And you may be living with someone who grabbed, or maybe it would be better to say captured, you attention. I am.
The reason you are driving, living in, or living with something or someone who grabbed you attention is that once it or they had your attention, you drifted in their direction. Thats understandable because attention determines direction. And thats not always a bad thing." (pg 137)

Something that Stanley touches on later in this chapter is that those not so good attention grabbers are deterring your attention from that which deserves you attention the most. If you are so focused, captured, infatuated by something that your attention is so heavily placed on that person or thing what is the quality of time you are placing on the lessor of your priorities? How often do we say "Oh i don't have time to read Luke today..." Yet we can sit on facebook for an hour and a half. We follow where our attention and focus is...

I can think of SO many times of something or someone for that matter that totally captivated me and i floated in that direction. Some of them good, and a lot of them not so good. We all have those, relationships we wish we would have never dove head first into, friendships we let slip away because we were "too busy", academic or business opportunities we let slip through our hands.

"Life was better before these things grabbed your attention. In many cases, the path you were on before they came along was the path you should have adhered to. But you didn't. And what grabbed your attention altered your direction.

No doubt you had mental conversation that went something like this:

Wow..would you look at that.
I probably shouldn't go there...
But perhaps I should double-check to make sure I shouldn't go there...
Yeah, I shouldn't go there.
C'mon now, focus.
Probably wouldn't hurt to go there for a moment.

Remember how common senes seemed to get railroaded by the emotion of whatever or whoever it was that grabbed your attention? Before you knew it you were moving in an entirely different direction." (pg. 140)

How many of us have been in a situation where we have a mental conversation where we know we shouldn't go down that path but somehow we talk ourselves into believing that it won't really hurt anything. I caught myself doing this today even, so its not to say i don't still struggle with it and Oh! this book cured me or anything like that, BUT at least now I am aware whereas before i wouldn't have thought anything of it. Progress is beautiful sometimes and i'm super pumped and thankful to Mr. Stanley and his wonderful book.

So I challenge you to think, and be honest with yourselves because seriously, i doubt many will read this or last through its novel like length, but to those of you that do honestly ask yourselves what are these things that have captured your attention. Then ask yourselves, are these things and people in alignment with the path that i want to follow for my ultimate goal in my life? And i say life in a broad since but it can be broken up into the various aspects of life as well (relationships, finances, spirituality, family, etc.) Because i mean seriously there is no reason to lie to yourself or the screen because i'm never gonna know if you seriously asked yourself this or not. I'll even share mine if it makes you more comfortable, My attention grabbers that are distracting me or 1) Social Networking Sites (ie Facebook and MySpace) 2) a Friendship and 3) The fianancial situation of my family.

So when I begin to have thoughts or urges to focus on these things i refer to Psalm 119, but more specifically Psalm 119:37 "Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word." And its hard because like Stanley says I have a strong emotional tie in some way or fashion to all three of these distractions in my life, but my love for Christ is stronger and He is so much more deserving of my time than anything this world has to offer me. So i pray daily that he "turns my eyes from worthless things" so that He will be the center point in my life.