Narrow my Interests

The great difficulty spiritually is to concentrate on God, and it is His blessings that make it difficult.  Troubles nearly always make us look to God. His blessings are apt to make us look elsewhere.  The teaching of the Sermon on the Mount is, in effect - Narrow all your interests until the attitude of mind and heart and body is concentration on Jesus Christ.  "Look unto Me". - Oswald Chambers

How did Oswald "see" me so clearly?  I think often within this context we are encouraged to have our hand in many different pots.  To be well balanced, diversified in our pursuits.  Even within the church, we can be pulled in a hundred different directions.  But a call to focus and "narrow our interests" is rarely the battlecry.

Think about the high level athlete.   They know that there can only be one thing.  One focus. And all energy, all passion, all effort must be given to that.  Everything else is a distraction.  Even the good things of life can cost them dearly; they can be what keeps them from ultimately winning the prize.

I guess the question I ask myself this morning is - what is the prize I'm really pursuing?  And in the present state of affairs, do I truly have the possibility of attaining it.  What needs to be discarded, set aside?  Especially, what good things are getting in the way?  How can I live life so that the ONE thing remains just that?  Narrow my interests until ... until "the attitude of mind and heart and body is concentration on Jesus Christ".