Since the Super Bowl was this past weekend, I began thinking about contests and how much the public loves to watch them. We don't necessarily like to be part of them, but we admire those who get in there and fight for the title, "First"!

I looked up the definition of Contest and found this: "a race, conflict, or other competition between rivals, as for a prize." The teams that qualified to compete in the Super Bowl are the teams that most consistently beat their rivals throughout the season. It's likely that the team that wins in the end is the one that most consistently kept focused on their goal.

What about us? What rivals for your time and attention? How are we doing with beating them and staying focused? Today, more than ever focused attention is rare! Just when you've started to do one thing (like writing), something distracts you (like your phone vibrating) and you're led away from your task.

Even in the days of Jesus, he stated why he had come (i.e. John 10:10, John 12:46, Hebrews 10:9, Matthew 5:17, Matthew 10:34, etc.) for the sake of others, but maybe also to help himself stay on course. People were often wanting him to do something (John 2:4) that wasn't on his plan.

That got me to thinking, "Do I even know when I'm off plan?" Jesus was so focused on what his mission was that he wasn't easily taken off plan. Is that true for us today? Today's society is so susceptible to be taken off whatever plan we have because of our constant connection to mobile devices (which can bring "off plan" stuff to us anytime it's on).

I've decided that I'm going to narrow my focus to only those things that are "on plan". All other things are distractions from moving towards my goals.

How about you? Do you have a plan? How's it going sticking to it?