TURN AWAY MY EYES...

Another executive order signed. Another fight involving Chris Brown. Another unarmed black man shot, another armed white man not...or vice versa. Whatever IT is, its goal is to gain your gaze, and to get you to focus on worthless ways.

My birthday was last week, and instead of partying and raising the roof  -did I just date myself? ;)   -I chose to slow down, get still, and reflect on the full life I have been blessed to experience. 

Now, depending on what you are focusing on currently, the fact that I believe my life to have been full and blessed could cause you to smile, or it cause cause you to sneer. You may feel as if I am not concerned enough with the injustices that are constantly pushed down our throats, or that I am stirring the pot because I even mentioned an unarmed black man got shot.    Again. :(      

But that is not the topic here.

The topic HERE is that things are constantly pulling for our attention and trying to get our gaze to turn towards events, activities, and results to be our fuel for current and future decisions. And sometimes I want to let them...sometimes, I LONG to let them. Sometimes I long to scream in the face of practices and perspectives that are dismissive of my pain, to tell people what it feels like to be me when I get stopped at 1 am in Rattan, OK (in a Mazda CX-5) after referreeing four basketball games in Broken Bow and then have the officer ask me if I have any weapons before he asked my name, or for my license and registration. Some will say, "Well, he has to protect himself and he may be afraid." To that I say, "Am I not? Alone on a country road with absolutely no witnesses and an officer who clearly has lied about me going 30+ miles over the highway speed limit?"  Whoo! I still feel the sting of that thing.  

But I can't let it hold my gaze or become my filter. I can not. I will not. I refuse to. Because in reality, that is just another hand trying to turn my head.
                                                                 
And steal my gaze.

So what is my strategy? My response?

I choose.

I choose o hold even more tightly to the One that holds me. And not let go. To peer through His lens and let IT influence me.

In simplicity. 

"LORD, turn away my eyes from worthless things."  There are so many beautiful things to be seen. 

So when the culture SCREEEAMS for your attention and demands that you react to its tantrums, and built-on-sand systems, I encourage you to deny its demands. To wipe your hands of foolishness and say "No," to practices, promotions, and pursuits that do not line up with who, and Whose, you are by re-adjusting and focusing your gaze on things that are gaze-worthy.  And I'll do it with you.

Have a wonderful week!

Coach Shay

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