Energy Suck

​​I was talking to a person facing mobility issues. We were talking about climbing stairs.
 
This came up: Sometimes, even if you can still struggle up the stairs, it’s good to wonder if that’s the way you need to spend your energy. Or, do you want to focus your energy elsewhere?
 
In this setting, this question of energy and focus is something none of us wants to face, but almost all of us will.
 
More broadly applied, the question is one that has the power to transform us at any point during life.
           
Whether you’re 22 or 82, whether you feel your energy equals the sun or just a flickering match, please take a day to think about what you focus your energy upon. Reflect on what your family or community focuses its energy upon.
           
Is that the way you want to spend it? The way you need to spend it?
           
In the conversation about stairs, the transformation may happen by moving to a single-floor home, or by installing a lift chair in the current house. Or, maybe you keep climbing the stairs because the exercise is worth the energy.
           
But what about other situations? Your situation?
           
If you are a Christian, please approach it in what might be called lordship terms.
           
Christians confess, “Jesus is Lord,” and that means Jesus is the ultimate authority in our lives. When I’ve thought about someone being persecuted for this confession, usually I’ve imagined some government forbidding me to worship.
           
But this simple energy/focus take on the good confession is much more real.
 
Given what I know of Jesus, given the gifts and callings he’s placed in my life, given my dreams and responsibilities, is my energy focused in ways that show Christ is Lord?
 
If you follow Jesus, what about you?
​