Positive Focus
Amidst the pain and sadness in the world, if we look we will see that there are good things happening too. Even in this time of Covid-19.
Did you know that while NZ was in Level 4, Z Fuel supplied all 700 ambulances in NZ with free fuel? Or that air pollution in India decreased so much during their lockdown that residents of Jalandhar woke up one morning to see the Himalaya mountain range that was visible for the first time in 30 years?
Recently it has been easy to spend hours each day watching, reading, and listening to news feeds and television full of heart-breaking stories of people who have lost loved ones due to Covid-19—and to feel like it will never end. When the virus reached New Zealand, I was shocked and scared about what might happen here. I’ll admit that I frequently searched for the latest news updates. After the first ten days my nerves were shot! Most of my conversations with other people consisted of questions like ‘have you seen the news?’ or ‘did you watch the 1pm update’?
After that first week, I realised that if I continued to focus so much on all the news updates, it would negatively affect my ability to cope at all.
Around this time, a Bible study reminded me that what we focus on the most is what most affects our actions. 2 Corinthians 10:5 tells us:
‘We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ’.
Capture every thought…
That is a challenge that requires us to be intentional about which thoughts we let stay in our mind. It also requires us to be still before God and to let Him help us because we need more than self-discipline alone to control our negative thoughts and emotions.
Six weeks into our NZ Covid-19 journey, I do often watch the 1pm update and news so that I am informed. But I no longer feel compelled to check for constant updates. I am learning to catch my thoughts before they run away on me and to connect with God in prayer. This has taken my focus away from the ‘what ifs’ and has helped me to focus on what is important now.
Changing focus has helped me to look around me and find positives in this new world we find ourselves in. Stories like that of Captain Tom Moore, a hundred-year-old war veteran from the UK, who was determined to raise money for their NHS and, to date, has raised more than 65 million NZ dollars!
Yes, good things are happening. Praise be to God!
Challenge Questions
How much time each day do I spend watching news updates compared to spending time reading God’s word and praying?
Do I need to ‘take every thought captive’ in my day-to-day life? Ask God to help you to do this.