Anyone can be pulled from their focus by a chain reaction. In other words, you can be dragged away from what you are focusing on from an outside source.

I have to be careful to keep my focus because it is so easy for me to … oh, look at how the light from the window is casting an image on the pool table. 

… Sorry for that, but I guess you see what I mean. 

It doesn’t take much for my attention to be diverted from what I am working on to something completely different.

I do it to myself all the time. All of us do; some of us do it more than others.

But that is not being pulled from your focus by a chain reaction. 

A chain reaction is when you are focussed on doing something and someone else leads you away from that focus to something completely different. 

This happens all the time, like when you are working on a project and your boss breaks into your office and says, “We have a crisis. I need you to draw up a contract and have it couriered to a client immediately.”

There is nothing much you can do about that, except drop what you are doing and pick up the new assignment. It is necessary, urgent, and a directive from your boss. 

Technically, you could say your boss got you off on a tangent, but that is not what really happened. Your boss changed your direction.

Sometimes, however, you can find yourself on a chain reaction tangent.

That’s when someone other than you interrupts your focus to get you to do something completely unrelated to what you were doing and to what they were doing at the moment. 

… I hope that last sentence didn’t hypnotize anyone.

Let me explain. 

I was on my way to write a blog when Lily sighed and said she needed to get some things out of the spare bedroom.

Maybe it was just a passing comment, but I wondered why she said that and then didn’t remove the items. 

So I asked a question. 

She couldn’t give me an answer. She had to come and see what I was talking about … which somehow elicited another sigh from her as she walked into our bedroom.

She looked at our bathroom door and said, “I need the towel racks taken off this door so I can paint it.” 

“What?” I said. “How did we get here? I was on my way to write a blog and you were in the kitchen talking about some things in the spare bedroom.” 

“Now you want me to take the towel racks off our bathroom door so you can paint it? Where did this come from?” 

Minutes later I had a screwdriver in my hand and I was taking the hardware off the door.

That is what you call a chain reaction tangent. 

… At least it gave me something to blog about.

Here’s the thing: In what ways does God want you to grow closer to Him? Or how has God been nudging you to make a commitment to Him? You can find all kinds of things that will keep you from growing or making a decision to follow Christ. Those chain reaction tangents will take you so far from what God wants you to focus on that it might take months or years to get back. Don’t let a chain reaction tangent take you from what God wants to do in your life.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What is threatening your focus right now? Leave your comments and questions below.

Subscribe to my blog and receive posts like this one delivered to your email inbox twice weekly.