Take Note: Look Up & Focus Your Attention On God

I had a teacher in high school who was very particular about the way we took notes in her class. At 15 years old I had no idea there was a right or wrong way to take notes. I didn’t think it mattered just as long as I got the information down on paper.

Apparently, not all note-taking strategies are created equal. Who knew? My “strategy” consisted of looking back and forth at the board over and over again, writing down a couple of words at a time until I was done. My head would move so quickly it’s a wonder I didn’t get whiplash or something. Up at the board, down at my paper, up, down, “What did that say?” up, down, etc. Was I able to listen to my teacher explain the lesson? Well, no, but by-golly I wrote down every single word in those notes! That had to count for something.

My teacher explained that we should spend more time with our heads up. That we should focus on absorbing the message being conveyed. She claimed if we would read the notes as a complete thought, and not isolate the words, we wouldn’t have to look back and forth so often. By doing this, we’d save time and retain more information.

I tested her theory. I wish I could say I became the world’s most impressive note-taker, but that wasn’t the case.

 I kept forgetting to look up and focus!

My parents won’t be shocked by this at all. I can still hear my mom’s exasperated voice saying, “Focus, Kate!” when I’d slip into my own little world as a teen. We laugh about it now and when I go home to visit my dad still yells out, “Focus!” just for old times’ sake.

It took a lot of practice to change my note-taking habits, but I found that I slowly became more proficient at it. Instead of looking back and forth with 2-3 words committed to memory at a time, I could remember entire phrases. Eventually, I learned to look up and focus long enough to absorb and understand the overall message.

I’d been so intent on getting every word written down exactly right, that I wasn’t paying attention to the lesson my teacher was trying to teach me.

Have a Problem? Look Up and Focus on God!

We can easily find ourselves acting the same way in our everyday lives. Even in our relationship with God. We go about our lives and then a problem pops up. Big or small, it doesn’t matter.

A family member gets sick. A spouse loses a job. A child gets in trouble. A financial issue comes out of nowhere.

Heartbreak. Addiction. Loss. Rejection. Betrayal.

Maybe we just can’t “mom” today. We’re tired. Overwhelmed. Irritable. And like clockwork, guilt enters the scene.

Maybe a pandemic hits and changes everything.

You name it. Any problem.

All of a sudden, our thoughts are scattered and our heads are whipping back and forth looking for a solution.

Have you been there?

We glance up to Heaven long enough to franticly ask, “Why God?!” but before He can respond we’ve looked away. We look down at our problem and try to fix it on our own. When that doesn’t work it dawns on us, “Oh yeah, I should be praying about this.”

Again, we look to God. We pray. But perhaps we get distracted and our attention is torn away too quickly. Maybe in that short time of looking up, we take away a couple of words of encouragement. Maybe we glean a couple of words of wisdom. And that’s all well and good but let’s be brutally honest here. Our conversation was mainly one-sided, and God didn’t have enough time to teach us the lesson we needed to learn.  

What would happen, I wonder if we’d start going about things differently? What if we stopped trying to take control of every situation that pops up in our lives? What if we stopped trying to fix it all ourselves? What if we decide we want more than only a couple of words of encouragement or wisdom at a time?

What if we just stop, look up, and focus on God? 

I’d venture to say our lives would become much more peaceful. We’d find more meaning in the tough times. We’d learn more lessons. We’d see more growth within ourselves and in our relationship with God.

Our problems may not disappear overnight, but we can find rest, knowing that God is on our side. He is walking with us through the rough patches of life. We can trust Him in every situation. We can find hope in His never-ending grace.

Dear Friend, look up and focus on God. 

“I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”

Psalms 121:1-2 (ESV)