I was able to reflect on the emotional and psychological roller coaster that I’ve been going through these past few days. To better explain what I got out of pondering on the events that happened, let me tell you a story. My family planned a five-day vacation in Melbourne, and I told myself I would make the most of this time away from work. And I did, my time in Melbourne was excellent. The place we stayed in suited us ideally. There were a few setbacks as expected with any trip, but they didn’t impact my holiday. Everything went so well that I just wanted to lay back, eat good food, and see the fantastic sights Melbourne had to offer. There was nothing wrong about wanting time off. My problem was that my longing to relax outweighed my hunger for God. I had to exert effort to say prayers and read the Bible. The presence of God was not my place of refuge on that trip, and that attitude bothered me a lot. In the morning after our holiday, my wife told me that there was something we needed to talk about and she was going to tell me after I got home from work. I asked her to tell me that morning but she said she wasn’t ready yet. I had to wait until the evening for us to talk about what was bothering my wife. You know what? The wait from morning until the end of the day drove me nuts. My head played tricks on me and showed me negative possibilities and worst-case scenarios. I refused to dwell on them, but to be honest, pessimistic thinking got the better of me. I had to exert a lot of effort to focus at work. I completed most of my targets, but I wasn’t pleased with the results because I knew I could have done more. When I got home, my wife and I finally got our alone time, and we were able to discuss important matters about our family. It was pretty serious, but with the leading of the Holy Spirit, we were able to sort things out. Before our talk, it seemed that thoughts of negativity or simply put worrying, almost paralysed me that day. Where am I going with this story? Life can give us wonderful and unfortunate circumstances, and both could equally distract us from the things of God. We need to learn to control our emotions and thought processes to fulfil God’s purpose in our life. Managing our feelings and thinking are very difficult to do and require high emotional intelligence. It takes a lot of faith to overcome the lies of the enemy. It needs a certain maturity to overcome the struggle within. The Bible says, Philippians 4:8 New International Version (NIV) 8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. We need to pay attention to our feelings and the things that we think about. Not all good things can lead to God’s will in our lives. Today’s culture has declared a lot of things to be morally acceptable even though it goes against the instructions of the Bible. We need to filter information, opportunities, activities and behaviour to see if they belong to the things of God. How can we focus on the things of God? This is what the Bible says, Colossians 3:1-4 New International Version (NIV) 3 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. We need to focus on Jesus. Something that could help us keep our eyes on Christ is to remember that He gave His life to save us. As we seek Jesus, His name will be glorified and we will share in His glory. The end goal will be us living life in the fullness that is beyond our imagination. Life offers a lot of distractions, but only one way will lead to the fulfilment of our destiny, that way is Jesus.