Joyful Transformation

**Travel update: David called at 7:00 a.m. He had just arrived in Japan after a 11 ½ hour flight from Los Angeles. This was on the heels of a 5 hour flight from Detroit where they had missed the direct flight the day before. He had not yet been to bed, but his luggage had caught up with him and the flight though long was uneventful.**

I sometimes tend to lose focus. I have so much I want to do that I can get overwhelmed instead of methodically just getting it all done. Take my reading for example. In the last week I have started 4 books! Yep, four books at the same time. I get frustrated because I don’t feel like I have enough time to read in all of them, read a few blogs and get my Bible reading in all in one night….and the Australian Open is on this week! However, last night I did manage to do most of that. I did not read in one of the books, since it is the one I am teaching out of and I am already ahead of what I will be covering tomorrow night. I had to sacrifice a little sleep to be able to get all of that done, but I did it. These nights home alone for me are precious and few, so I have to make the most of them.

On the surface you might want to say, “Donna, you are tying to do too much at once.” But I would argue with that. You see, I am sacrificing a host of other things that I enjoy. I am expanding my mind in several different directions at one time and yet I am keeping up with the challenge. You see, I know my limitations. I also know my strengths and more importantly I know my weaknesses.

I think we have to be able to discern all of those things to be effective, especially in our service to God. We can be involved in several similar things at the same time, but we must be careful to keep focus and to realize that participating in some things will require us to sacrifice other things. Here it is vital that we know our strengths and our weaknesses where we can choose wisely. Focusing on what we are trying to accomplish is the most important thing. When we sharpen our focus we will just know what things we need to eliminate from our schedules.