I remember college days (and nights) when I worked in print shops. Supervisors loved to see my head down and my elbows in motion. By my posture, they knew if my focus was on the job at hand. Focus meant I didn’t waste the $2.00 per hour I received.

Parents often equate busyness with staying out of trouble.

Sideline critics and Monday morning quarterbacks have no skin in the game. It takes neither sweat nor strain to be a critic. With practice, criticism flows naturally.

I want to be open to constructive critics. I must always resist becoming a self-appointed professional critic. Self-appointed professional critics seldom have skin in the game.

When I bring criticism into the arena of church, I cultivate an evil cancer within the body of Jesus.

Jesus remains the only hope for unity in the church.

Here is what I notice: The more I focus on Jesus the less time I have—and frankly, the less is my tendency—to focus on criticism.

In baseball, a constant theme of managers and players is focusing on the basics of the game. If you strike out, you can’t get on base. If you don’t get on base, you cannot score. If you miss a ball, you cannot put the runner out.

Once again, I remind myself of the basics of unity and health within Jesus’ body. Unity can flow from three concepts. By my focus on the basics, Jesus will cultivate within my own soul fertile ground for the seeds of unity to sprout.

The basics flow from the cross.

First, I must focus on Jesus and make sure he is at the center of my life.

In my youth, I remember reading a book titled “In His Steps” by Charles Sheldon. Published 116 years ago, the novel challenges the reader to focus life upon Jesus by asking the question in every circumstance, “What would Jesus do?”

To reflect on how Jesus might react to the variety of circumstances I face in my daily walk is certainly one way to focus upon Jesus. I want to keep Jesus so close that I am not sure if it is the Master or me reacting to daily life.

Second, I want to remember who I might have become and who I am.

Without Jesus, I am nothing. Without Jesus, lost, beggar, blind, hopeless, sin filled, stubborn, arrogant, pride, would be my life descriptors. That is the best Satan offers.

Jesus made me a child of the King. I am now a child of God. I am saved, rich, have sight, am full of hope, my sin is cleansed, and in gratitude I am humbled at the undeserved grace I received.

In light of a gift I cannot merit, surely I owe patience to all fellow Christians. Gratitude should compel every member of God’s family toward fellowship and unity.

Finally, I want to be a gusher of grace.

God wasn’t stingy with His grace toward me. Why would I dare be stingy with grace toward a fellow believer?

If I spend my time as a gusher of grace, focused on Jesus as king of my life, and remember who I might have become were it not for God’s free gift of grace toward me, I will be too focused to break the unity of Christ’s church on earth.

Stay tuned.

Gary J. Sorrells on Cross Church