Focusing on the Right Thing

"Time for some coffee," I though as I poured water into the back of our Keurig. 

It was breakfast time and I stepped away and began making a couple of slices of toast.  For some reason or other, this is my typical breakfast -- one cup of coffee and two slices of toast.

I heard the Keurig kick on and could smell the aroma of coffee coming from it.  It seemed to smell extra good this morning.

I finished buttering my toast and stepped over to the coffee maker to claim my mug.  My coffee cup stood forlornly beside the Keurig, while around it stretched a small pond of coffee. 

I'd forgotten to put my mug into the Keurig and so my beautiful coffee had gone everywhere except into my cup.

I suppose the issue is that I was distracted.  I was thinking about toast and butter and jelly.  I was thinking about all of the patients I would be taking care of later that day.  The one thing I wasn't focused on was actually making coffee.

I think all of us have mental lapses at times.  They aren't intended, but if we were just paying a little more attention to the activity at hand, they wouldn't happen either.

In the Gospels, the story is told of Jesus walking on the water in a storm on the Sea of Galilee.  The Apostle Peter saw Jesus and asked if he too could walk on the water.  Jesus told him to come and so he stepped out of the boat -- a very brave thing to do. 

Matthew tells us of Peter, "But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, 'Lord save me.'"  Of course, Jesus stretched out His hand and helped him into the boat.

The lesson is clear.  Every one of us is focusing on something, just some times it isn't the thing we really should be concentrating on.  Peter was paying far too much attention to the wind and the waves and not nearly enough to the Savior who walking to him across the water.  I'm not very much different.

More than anything else, our focus needs to be on Jesus.  With our eyes on Him we can weather any storm -- even the clean up process of a whole cup of coffee all over a kitchen counter.