I recently received a copy of Living into Focus: Choosing What Matters in an Age of Distractions by Arthur Boers as a part of the Patheos Book Club.   As I had mentioned earlier this month, I’m not as intentional, or as focused as I think I am or want to be.   This book was a really different take on being focused.   Mr. Boers spends a large part of the book explaining what he calls a focal practice and why it’s important.  That is, something that is meaningful and at your heart.  It requires something of you — energy, effort, discipline, attention and focus.   A Baptist theologian & professor, he brings in a wide variety of references and examples to make his points, including a (positive) reference to Catholicism :).

Like most people, I’ve never thought about what my focal practices are or realized just HOW essential they are to slowing down and being able to focus.   What is my focal practice?   This.  Blogging.  Well, writing in general.   Journaling, blogging, stories.  Heck, even my grocery list and menu plan and notebook full of lists, notes, and someday’s speak to something inside that helps me focus and slow down.   I never realized that that is what this was until I had picked it back up after a 10-year break.   No matter how many times I think I need to drop blogging, I find ways to fit it in.   Even more than what I plan on doing or think I need to do to keep a blog with decent readership.  I guess God will provide right?

If you are frazzled, exhausted or looking for hope without being given a laundry list of things you need to do, Living into Focus is the book for you.   He offers a few areas of examples to consider but never makes any pressure to do it all.   I’m sure something will come to mind when you read this.   Read, explore, live, focus.

What is YOUR focal practice?  What could you spend hours doing and not even realize time passed?

 

 

by | 2 Comments

2Pingbacks & Trackbacks on Living Into Focus {Book Review}

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comment *






CommentLuv badge