“So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I read an article the other day that talked about how college students can’t read like they used to be able to read. I don’t mean they can’t read at all. I mean they can’t stay focused enough to read long passages or books anymore. The author blamed a combination of our digital age and shifting emphases in education for the deficit. Whatever the reason, we can’t stay focused like we used to anymore. This is not a neutral phenomenon either. It is a formational one. How can we combat the impact of our distractible age especially in this season when life can feel extra distracting? Paul offers some helpful insights here. Let’s talk about them.

I suppose I should note here out of the gate that I’m not merely criticizing in the abstract. I’m criticizing personally. That is, I’m just as guilty of this distractibleness as modem college students. In high school I could read for long stretches of time without taking a break. Now, I’m good to be able to stay focused for 10-15 minutes before having to come up for mental air. When I write, unless I really get into a rhythm, I’ll get down a paragraph or two at best before stopping to do something else for a minute.

While this isn’t necessarily a good thing, a lack of focus in small things like this is merely a symptom of a larger loss of focus that is potentially far more dangerous. When we give into the fundamentally entertainment-driven nature of our culture, we can lose focus in life. We can get in a place in which we stop pursuing big things or even significant small things in favor of just spinning our existential tires in place, going nowhere in particular.

Living in this kind of place for a short time isn’t good, but neither is it the end of the world. Staying here for long, though, can find us losing a clear sense of purpose and direction. Lingering too long here can lead to a loss of hope. It can result in all sorts of negative and harmful things as we become more and more willing to do even egregiously awful things simply so that we can feel something.

The solution to all of this is focus. But saying we need to be more focused isn’t helpful. We need more than that. If you are going to have greater focus in your life, that assumes you have something to focus on. Focus needs an object. And, if we want our lives to have meaning and purpose, the object of our focus has to be external to and independent of ourselves.

Drilling down on this just a bit further, it is not enough to have focus in our lives. Not all things to which we could give our primary attention are created equal. The particular object we choose matters a great deal. If we choose something trivial, then our lives will be marked by little more than triviality. If we choose something negative, we are going to experience negative outcomes in our life because of it. But if we choose something that is good and righteous, just and true, noble and praiseworthy, then our life will begin to bear such sweet fruits.

If you are a follower of Jesus, then your focus needs to be set on what Paul calls the things above. The object of your greatest and best attention must be those things which are heavenly in their orientation, things that ultimately direct your attention to Christ. Or, as Paul put it for the Colossian believers: “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” He made a similar observation to the Philippian believers when he said, “Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable — if there is any moral excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy — dwell on these things.”

There are all kinds of reasons that our focus should be directed upward and not toward the things of this world, but Paul offers us an important one here. Such a shift in focus is not consistent with our new identity in Christ. When we place our faith in Christ, our life is joined to His because of His life-giving resurrection. This is because we spiritually align ourselves with His sin-defeating death. As ones who have died to sin with Christ such that its power over us is broken, choosing to give attention to sinful ideas and desires is utterly inappropriate.

We are those who will join with Him in His glorywhen He returns to claim His kingdom. It is beneath ones such as us to lower ourselves back into the sin He freed us from. This is not to say we are better than anyone. We most emphatically aren’t. It is Christ who makes us anything. Without Him we are nothing. Rather, this is to say such a lowering of focus is not fitting for those who now stand in Christ.

The season of Advent is a reminder of all of this in a potent way. Even as the world around vies especially hard for our attention, it is more important than ever to resist its siren song and keep our attention trained on the one whose birth we celebrate.

How do we do this? By making sure we are clear where our focus is located in the first place. Is your focus on Jesus, the one we celebrate, or is it somewhere else? And if it is somewhere else, where else is it? Why are you giving it to this other thing? What promise has it made that you have bought into? What are the real prospects that it is going to keep its promise? (Spoiler alert: they aren’t good.)

If you need to shift your focus back to Jesus, start small. Create one point of rhythm in your life that intentionally sets your attention on Jesus. This can be just about anything as long as it is intentional in its aim. From here, identify one other thing to which you are giving your attention, and remove it from your calendar. For this year, that may be all you can do. But it’s a step in the right direction, and that matters. Take that first one and others will follow.