When he first rose into the ranks of NASCAR’s Cup series, Kyle Busch almost immediately positioned himself as one of the sports bad boys. Feisty, arrogant, rowdy, and obstinate were all words used to describe the young driver who cared little for what people thought of him. He wrecked people, mocked the competition, and then began leaving everyone else in his dust. A few short years later, Busch is one of the most dominant forces in NASCAR—winning consistently in all three of NASCAR’s top divisions (Truck, Nationwide and Cup). In fact, in 2008, Busch won a record total of 21 races in the three divisions. Saturday, in winning the Nationwide race at Bristol, Busch showed his dominance once again by becoming the first driver in history to lead 10,000 laps in that series. Oh, and he won again in Sunday’s Cup race for his 5th straight win at Bristol. That is domination.
The key to that dominance? Focus. In fact, big time focus. Almost at any moment, Busch is in a vehicle somewhere and he is racing. Constantly working on his craft, he is absolutely focused on becoming the very best at what he does. It is the ability to keep his eye on the prize that makes him such a threat every single race he enters. If he can maintain that focus, he will likely continue to be a force to be reckoned with for years to come.
We could learn from that focus in our walk with Christ. It is easy to lose sight of what it means to live for the Master in a world full of distractions, but that is where focus comes in. And, it is more than focus on the task at hand—it is focus on the prize. Paul wrote:
Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. (1 Corinthians 9:24)
We are challenged to do more than merely run. We are called to give our very best—we are to run to win the prize. And what is that prize? The blessing of one day hearing the Savior say, “Well done, good and faithful servant…” That is the best of all reasons to keep our focus—the joy of knowing that our life has been pleasing to our Lord. For the follower of Christ, it begins with a commitment to focus.
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