focus [foh-kuhs]

a central point, as of attraction, attention, or activity

Synonyms include: center, core, target

"No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (the false god of riches and avarice)." ~Luke 16:13

Isn't it great sometimes when you're going through an ordeal and it feels like everything and everyone around you seems to be in on it? That suddenly there's an article in a magazine, or an episode of the Cosby Show, or a conversation you overhear that somehow relates to your little dilemma? Sometimes it's annoying, like the world is rubbing it in your face. Other times you're thankful that you're getting unsolicited help.

That bible verse was the last line of today's gospel and, truth be told, I was zoning in and out of mass today, snapping to my senses right before Fr. finished reading. We can't serve the Lord AND money. Got it. I knew that, right? But then Fr. said something that caught me wondering. He said, "Invest your creativity and energy on things that will last."

The point of the reading wasn't just to tell us that we should spend more time preparing for our heavenly welcome rather than maintaining our earthly wealth. It was to tell us - to tell me- plain and simply, that I need to re-think, re-prioritize and re-focus my life. There is a mental to-do list that I've been avoiding for so long because I know how hard it's going to be to check anything off of it. I think I've run out of masters to serve, though, so I can't keep it aside much longer. I'm so tempted to make something up so I can just keep going the way I've been, but deep inside I know that my creativity and energy crave new goals. I'm long overdue.

I ask myself (more than I should), why life's little nuisances seem to happen at the most inopportune times. Then I realize, when do "bad" things ever happen at the right time? It's never the "right time" when they happen. Only in hindsight does adversity seem to make any sort of sense. Everything happens when it's supposed to happen. Like Fr. Joe once said, "You just have to trust God's timing."