How Do We Reorient Our Attention So That We Glorify God?

In The Matter with Things, Ian McGilchrist suggests that attention plays the role of helping us “get a handle on reality.” He notes, “Attention is not just another cognitive function. Attention is how our world comes into being for us. The altered nature of attention can appear to abolish parts of the world, collapse time and space, eviscerate emotion, and render the living inanimate. It is a profoundly moral act.” As Christians, we can sharpen McGilchrist’s final statement because attention isn’t simply “a profoundly moral act”—but a profoundly theological one.

Using McGilchrist’s language, we might say that when we pay attention to God, He “comes into being for us.” In reality, God is always present. However, our attention has something of an “altered nature” so that God becomes one of the “abolish[ed] parts of the world.” Too often, we push God to the periphery—we may be generally aware of Him, but we aren’t trueing ourselves to Him as a reference point. Paying attention is a profoundly theological activity because attending to God allows us to “get a handle on reality.” We need to remember that paying attention isn’t a stand-alone activity, but one that modifies the way we look, listen, analyze, evaluate, act, etc. Paying attention to God will involve all we are and have—it requires us to live life unbalanced (for more on this sort of living see “Living Life Unbalanced”).

So, how do we pay attention? More importantly, how do we pay attention to God? First, paying attention to God requires us to question our previous assumptions and judgments about how the world works. If we continue to think that our available resources and capacities are crucial are paramount, we will miss the necessity of obedience. For instance, Moses points back to Israel’s time in the wilderness was intended to teach Israel “that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deut 8:3). It isn’t that Israel had no need of food or other provisions but that getting those provisions at the expense of faithfully following the Lord is wrongheaded. It shifts one’s attention away from God and toward all that he provides.

Second, we need to establish a cadence of life that affords us the “space” to attend to God. We don’t often recognize just how detrimental busyness and constant stimulation are to our attention. Imagine, for instance, attempting to read you Bible in the middle of a rock concert. You may be able to do it, but it would require more effort than, for instance, studying your Bible in a quiet room. Cadence works in a similar way. The faster we move and the busier we are, the more difficult it will be to give our attention to God.

Establishing cadence is an expression of our conviction that pursuing the presence of God matters. Again, while God is always present—we are always with him. Still, there are times when God’s people express concern that God is absent or that they are separated from him (Ps 22:1, 11, 19; Jon 2:4). This is not a denial of God omnipresence, but a desire to experience God’s presence in a particular way. The point is that we shouldn’t take the fact that God is always present for granted. We don’t just want to be in the same vicinity as God—we want to experience his comforting, praiseworthy, holy presence. This desire is the basis for developing a cadence of life in which our daily responsibilities and tasks do not overshadow God.

Third, reorienting attention requires us to question life’s “musts.” In the 1990’s, NBC used the “Must See T.V.” slogan to encourage people to watch its primetime lineup. We know, however, that there is no “Must See T.V.” Missing one show or another (or all of them!) isn’t of any particular consequence—but it may have seemed like it at the time.

We have similar “musts” in today’s world. Emails, texts, reels, 24/7 news stories, the latest “binge worthy” show on Netflix, and a host of other items can tend to feel more like requirements than options. The pressure to be “in the know” or to give an “instant response” is real.

“Musts” often present as pseudo-solutions to a particular problem. Consider, for instance, the problem of exhaustion. After a busy week of work, parenting, relationships, etc., we may find ourselves seeking solace in some mindless activity. Unfortunately, what we turn to as a solution likely exacerbates the problem. Instead of engaging in some mindless activity, why not meditate on a verse of Scripture, read a theological book, or just get some sleep? We need to beware of “musts” that masquerade as solutions.

Identifying the false “musts” of daily life is crucial to orienting our attention. The world often presses in on our lives. It demands our attention—but that doesn’t mean we have to give it our attention. Instead, we need to learn to resist the false “musts” because glorifying God is the only thing we must do.

Finally, we need to learn to “delight” in God’s law (cf., Ps 1:2; you can listen to my discussion of Psalm 1 on Thinking Christian). This delight isn’t simply a zeal for knowledge or study but a pleasure found in obeying the Lord’s commands. It involves moving beyond “learning about” and toward “learning to.” Cultivating delight requires us to experience the joy, peace, and blessing that comes from obeying the Lord.

We have to begin to obey, recognize the pleasure that comes in participating in what God is doing, and obey some more. In this sense, our delight is the byproduct of a reciprocal process that widens and deepens our view of the world because, through obedience, we true ourselves to God and the order he has established. He becomes our point of reference—the guideline to which we continually and unceasingly seek to align.

Conclusion

Re-orienting our attention requires us to shift our mindset so that the “worst case scenario” is always failing to glorify the Lord. When we begin to think about the difference between (a) allowing God to use us even when that means setting aside some of the comforts we might otherwise enjoy and (b) settling for the pleasures of this life by pursuing our own interests on our terms. The former opens us up to the surprising opportunities provided by the God “who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think’ (Eph 3:20). The latter traps us within the boundaries of our own limited desires and vision. Escaping those limitations requires us not only to acknowledge that God is infinitely more relevantthan any other actor of factor but to adopt a posture that prepares us to respond faithfully to God in any given moment.