Are you really focused?

While riding the train this morning on my way to my job,  I witnessed an interesting display of bigotry , ignorance, and misguided focus.  When the train stopped at the Peachtree Center station, an older white man that looked to be in his sixties wedged himself in between the closing train doors and shouted some obscenities to proclaim his displeasure that the doors almost closed on him.  The man appeared to be homeless, and probably intoxicated.  He muddled over to the front of the train to claim the spot where he wanted to stand.  There were three Asian women already on the train speaking in their tongue at a slightly elevated pitch.  This apparently irritated the old man so much that he started yelling at them "go back home!".  They may not have understood what he was saying since they only glanced up at him every few seconds while continuing to talk to each other.  Maybe they were focused on something of higher value to them like a new business opportunity.  He was obviously referring to their race and assumed that they were immigrants and not native born Americans since they were of Asian decent and not speaking English.  Every fifteen seconds or so he would shout out "go back home!" and "that is the problem with this country, there are too many Japanese, Mexicans, and Chinese here!"  He must not have been as intoxicated as he appeared since he left black people out.  That was probably due to the fact that around 95% of the people on the train were black.  He continued his racist rant for about another five minutes until the train operator announced that we were at Lindbergh station.  The old man obviously was supposed to get off at an earlier stop because he started cursing again while darting off the train in a drunken panic.

The old man spent so much time focusing on people who looked different from him that he missed his opportunity to get off at the right stop.  I wonder how many other areas of his life in the past did he focus on the wrong things that may have led to his predicament?  Unfortunately the old man is symbolic of too many people in this country that feel like they own America.  These people focus so much time and misguided energy on what others who do not look like them are gaining, and not on the opportunities that they themselves are missing out on.

Are you focused in the right areas.    Are you reaching your God given potential and seizing opportunities that are only steps away?

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