This is what we call The Glare. When M steps up to the plate with The Glare, balls will fly, bases will be taken, runs will be scored. John’s gotten to where he can tell before she can how well she’ll hit the ball. He often videos her at-bats on his iPhone. One snippet we love to watch has him yelling “goodbye!” before she even swings! Sure enough, she knocks that ball to within a few feet of the fence. Only one girl was on base, but M knocked her in and got almost to third herself.
The Glare is many things. Cold, calculating, some say heartless. (When you’re descended from Genghis Khan, what do you expect?) But most of all it is single-minded. When she wears that look, it is because she has blocked out everything else. All she sees is that ball. There are a thousand things she’s noticed and is aware of—the score, runners on bases, fielders’ positions—but what she has to concentrate on at that moment to accomplish anything is the ball.
Life for a Christian is like that, I think. We may be mindful of many things. Society is changing drastically and rapidly. Worries and cares threaten to consume us. We can be distracted by all of this or we can do as Jesus entreated in His sermon on the mount, and seek His Kingdom and His righteousness before anything else.
Seeking here means to go after something as on a treasure hunt. First means having a place of preeminence, being more important than everything else, not just doing it before doing something else.
So seeking his Kingdom and His righteousness means we want to have the mind of Christ, all day, every day. We abide in Him as we go through our days, through our weeks, and live our lives. We consciously put aside everything else that would obstruct that goal.
Obviously we still go about our lives. There will be jobs and children and marriages to attend to. But we never want to knowingly, willingly compromise His Word in order to get what we want. His will must always be in the forefront of our thoughts, and the Gospel must always be preached, with or without words.
I’ve used the word “always” a lot today. It’s necessary. When it comes to advancing His Kingdom, we must be single-minded.
But off the field, we should probably ditch The Glare.