In our recent trip to the north of India, Derrick and I got a chance to visit the iconic Taj Mahal, one of the most popular tourist attractions of the world. It almost looked like a beautiful painting to me! More than the monument, the passion and focus of its builder Mughal emperor Shah Jahan got me captivated.
But this monument is nothing compared to the extravagance of one that another king had built. In the book of 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles we read about the first Jewish temple built in Jerusalem by King Solomon. The inside of the temple was overlaid with pure gold and adorned with precious stones. The temple was made largely of cedar wood and only blocks dressed at the quarry were used. The furnishings used inside were extravagant too.
During his lifetime, there were a couple of other things too that King Solomon focused on constructing. He built his own palace in the vicinity of the temple. He also made a palace for Pharaoh’s daughter, his principle wife whom he had married (1 Kings 7:8).
As I was reading about this a couple of verses caught my attention. 1 Kings 6:38 and 1 Kings 7:1 say that Solomon took 5 years to build the temple of the Lord. It took him 13 years, however to complete the construction of his palace.
There’s something to learn here — The thing we focus on is the time we spend the most on.
King Solomon excelled all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom (2 Chronicles 9:22), but he allowed his focus to be drifted to the things of the world and thus the wisest king on this planet had a forgetful end.
We may not be building a palace today but the question we need to ask ourselves is what are we focusing on? What takes the most of our time? Remember your life is the sum of what you focus on.
As we come to the last few days of the year, let me encourage you to realign your focus to Jesus. He has beautiful plans for your life!