Focusing on What’s Most Important
By Jennifer Slattery
“Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things.” Colossians 3:2
As my friend’s death drew near, everything honed into focus. She didn’t waste time on the trivial. Her driving concern—to tell her family and children everything she knew about Jesus before she met Him face to face.
Words like terminal and cancer have a way of shaving off all the fluff and boiling everything down to those things that are of utmost importance. In one conversation, everything changed for my friend Iris and her family. One minute she was going about her day, alternating between joy and frustration like most of us.
The next, she was planning her funeral. Oh, how she grieved! As her time grew shorter and her energy waned, her focus grew increasingly narrow. Everything centered around her desire that her family knew how much she loved them, but more importantly, that Christ did, so much so that He’d died for them, so that, one day, they could join her in heaven.
Watching my friend’s life fade and her passion for the gospel ignite made me realize how distracted I’d become. I’m easily consumed by my to-do list and minor inconveniences. I can get so caught up in the frustrations of today that I lose sight entirely on eternity.
Colossians 3:2 tells us to deliberately focus on the things of heaven rather than those on earth. That doesn’t mean never doing your laundry or enjoying a barbecue with friends, but God does want us to always be mindful of what’s most important—the gospel.
With each breath, we’ve been given a precious gift—life. May we, like Iris, use that gift to point those we love to the greatest gift—salvation in Jesus Christ.
Jennifer Slattery is a writer, editor, speaker, and the founder of Wholly Loved Ministries. She writes for Crosswalk, is the author of eight contemporary novels, and helped write Wholly Loved’s Bible study based on the life of Sarai (Gen. 12-23) titled Becoming His Princess, releasing in the spring/summer of 2019. When not writing, reading, or editing, Jennifer loves going on mall outings with her adult daughter and coffee dates with her hilariously fun husband. Visit her online at jenniferslatterylivesoutloud.com.
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Originally published Friday, 22 April 2022.
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