The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Pay Attention to What's in Front of You

Episode Date: May 15, 2026

It is easy to spend our lives distracted by everything except the mission God has given to us. Jeff challenges us to stop living under the “tyranny of the urgent” and instead focus on the people, responsibilities, and opportunities right in front of us. Email us with comments or questions at [e-mail]. Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 to subscribe and get Jeff’s shownotes delivered straight to your email! Or visit https://app.ascensionpress.com/podcasts/dbe3b3b6-4093-4cd8-86c8-758231835469 for full shownotes!

This podcast is brought to you by Ascension. To discover even more free Catholic podcasts, videos, and resources, to help you live your faith every day, visit ascensionpress.com. Welcome to the Jeff Kaven Show, where we talk about the Bible, discipleship, and evangelization, putting it all together in living as activated disciples. This is show 482. Pay attention to what's in front of you. Welcome to the show this week, my friend. Hope you're having a good week, a fruitful week. A quick reminder, we're disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ,

and we are on a mission with him. And what a privilege it is. Not only has God redeemed us, but he has brought us into the family of the Trinity, and he has gifted us in so many ways. But the one big thing we've got to remember, and a lot of people forget, but he also has launched us on a mission.

And that mission is multi-leveled. You have a mission for your family. You have a mission at work and your extended family, your neighborhood. But it really starts with a mission at home, doesn't it? Your marriage, your children. Well, I want to talk to you today about one of the things that keeps us from doing that and paying attention to what God is called you too. And so today's show is entitled,

pay attention to what's in front of you. I do have some scriptures. I'll give them to you. All you got to do is text my name, Jeff Kaven's one word to the number 3-777-3-377. 3-7. I'll give you the notes. Not a problem.

And if for some reason the notes aren't coming to you, well, go back again and re-up and we'll correct that for you. But I do hope you're having a good day. This time a year is really a beautiful time. We're kind of, you know, we're in the spring, and sometimes you have cooler days, and you're looking forward to those warmer spring days and summer, kind of a transitional period in life. And I think that's the way it is for some people, too. And, you know, in their walk with the Lord where they're leaving one season of their life and moving into another.

But one of the problems that we can get into is that we pay attention to everything that is not in front of us. We are distracted, you know, watching the news every night or binge watching something, reading a book, whatever it is. They're all good, but is it in front of you? Is it a task that the Lord has given you? And that was one of the secrets of Jesus' methodology, is that he was always paying attention to what the Father had called him to do. In paragraph 2602 of the Catechism, I love it.

I've said it probably a gazillion times over the years on this. show, and that is that what Jesus said and did in public was the evidence of what he talked about with the father in his time of private prayer. That's paragraph 26.02. So I want to talk about this a little bit because there's so many distractions in our life and people feel like they are victims of the tyranny of the urgent. Whatever is urgent, they're going to give their time to, they go scrolling through the emails or text messages, and one of them catches their attention and they're into it for the next half hour. When the truth of the matter was that they should have been paying attention to what was on their

plate, what was in front of them. And a lot of times those things are things dealing with our family, our obligations at work, our own relationship with the Lord, cultivating our hearts, cultivating our knowledge of God, and looking for the opportunities to put it into practice, which is what I talked about last week. If you forgot about that, that was eating and exercising in the spiritual life. That was show 481.

Well, all throughout the Bible, we see stories of people who are involved in a lot of different things. But there is a key verse in a lot of these stories of God directing his people to pay attention to what is in front of them, to bear their own load and to tend to business in their life rather than continually being so easily distracted. Is that a problem in your life? I struggle with it. I do. You know, I have to discipline myself. And I'm married to a good wife and she, Emily oftentimes will put those blinders like on a horse, you know, put those on me and say, hey, pay attention. You got to get this done.

I know, but I ran into this really interesting. YouTube video about a squirrel that roller skates. You've got to see it. Honey, do what you're supposed to do. You've got to talk tonight. Prepare for it. So I have to be reminded of that myself from time to time. Let me take you back to the story of Ezra. Ezra and Nehemiah. This takes place. It's towards the end of the Old Testament, at least in a narrative way. And you might remember the rebuilding or the liberation of Israel from Babylonian captivity. The Persians came in and Cyrus allowed them to come back into the holy land and rebuild the temple and establish the Torah of the law once again and then build a wall around Jerusalem.

It was a rubble that rebuilt the temple. It was Ezra, who is the one who began teaching the Word of God. And it was Nehemiah that built that wall around Jerusalem. They were coming back. It was the rising from the ashes. It was the spirituals phoenix, you know. And so in that story, Ezra needed to pay attention to what he was supposed to do,

which what was he supposed to do? He's supposed to teach and make known the word of God and the meaning of it to the people. They found the Torah's and this is the beginning of renewal, the beginning of healing, the beginning of a new day, a spring. time for Israel. And so he arose because it was his task to do this. And he said, be strong and do it. And Ezra arose and made the leading priests, the Levites, and all Israel take an oath that they would do as had been said. So they took the oath. And this was a very difficult task for Ezra to carry out. It was basically what was before him in front of him.

It was on his plate. It was number one on the to-do list. And the key text in Ezra, chapter 9 there, is arise for it is your task. Be strong and do it. So let me ask you a question. What are the tasks before you today? Not the wish list. not the silver shiny distraction.

But what is your task today? Are you married? What is your task regarding marriage? Your bride, your husband. What about your children? What is your task today? Yesterday I had a wonderful opportunity. My daughter has four kids and it was one of those days where there was a baseball practice.

there was two baseball practices, my granddaughter and my grandson, and my daughter's sponsoring someone for a confirmation. She had to go off to that. So Emily and I swept in. And this was our task for the day. And I brought my granddaughter to her baseball practice. And I could have gone back home and then picked her up in an hour. But as I was standing there, I thought, you know what? This is my task. I'm grandpa. She's having a ball game. It wasn't a practice, actually.

My grandson had a practice. She had a ball game. And it's the cutest thing in the world to sit there and watch your grandchildren play. But it wasn't me watching her. That was the most important thing. It was her watching me, knowing that grandpa was there, waving at me from the field with her pink glove. and I thought, you know what, this is my task. This is what's in front of me.

So I went back to the car, got that chair, brought it out, and I sat there behind the dugout and watched my granddaughter. I would say that there's a lot of other things I could have done. And I could have brought my phone and just been texting or watching videos or something like that. But what the task was to engage with my granddaughter because I have a responsibility according to my vocation. and that's what I paid attention to.

Now, everyone needs to bear their own load, right? Everyone needs to bear their own load. I'll share this with you. Paul runs into this with the Galatians, and this is a great lesson, by the way, that he gives us. He said to the Galatians in chapter six, for if anyone thinks he is something,

when he is nothing, he deceives himself. but let each one test his own work. And then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each man will have to bear his own load. So I'll ask you that question. Are you bearing your own load today? Are you taking responsibility for the things that God has called you to today? Very, very important, incredibly important.

A stoic philosopher once said, the chief task in life is to separate those things that are in our control from those that are out of our control. Then focus on only those things that are in your control. One of the ways that you can weed through all this busyness and being sidetracked in the tyranny of the urgent

is to ask yourself, according to your vocation, marriage, single, priest, clergy, deacon, what are you in control of today? What can you be a part of as far as controlling the situation, making the situation better? Or are you avoiding it? When we avoid the things that are within our control and the things that are in front of us, the things that we must bear when we avoid those, our life becomes more complex. you start developing an inner to-do list of things that you really should get to, but you didn't. Let's talk about this more.

I've got some more wonderful things to share with you right after the break. You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. So often during mass, we can go on autopilot. We are physically there, but mentally we're somewhere else. We're distracted, we're bored, or we're just going through the motions. A lot of Catholics think that the problem's them. They might say, oh, I'm bad at prayer. I'm just not spiritual enough.

But we want to realize is that at every mass, something extraordinary is taking place in our souls. And that's why Dr. Ed Sree and I co-wrote a book on the Mass called Pocket Guide to the Mass. And in the book, we walk through the Mass, step by step, explaining what the Mass is, what's happening, why we say what we say, do what we do, and how we can more deeply enter into the sacrifice to the Mass and more fully received the gift of the Eucharist. It's a simple, faithful, and small enough guide to bring with you at every Mass. And if you want to understand the mass more deeply and pray it more intentionally, I invite you to check out pocket guide to the mass at ascensionpress.com. Welcome back. Ask you the question again.

What's on your plate today? What's in front of you today? What is God calling you to do? Arise for it is your task. Be strong and do it. So let's start at home for a moment, shall we? What's on your plate? Now, you can carry this worry in your heart about everything else.

or you can focus on what's on your plate, what's in front of you. What is within your control? Give what you cannot control to the Lord. I'm not saying those things in your life that you think about that you can't control, you just ignore. Give it to the Lord. Cast your cares as Peter said. Cast your cares upon the Lord, for he cares for you.

Very, very powerful, you know, Peter's advice there. So at home in your marriage, what do you think, the three things? that are in front of you right now in your marriage. That might call for some prayer. That might call for some recollection. What's in front of you? What's on your plate today concerning marriage? Is it doing something for your spouse?

Is it encouraging your spouse, praying for your spouse? Is it taking on an errand that she really doesn't have time for? Is it inviting her to pray with you? Is that on your plate today? Your children. You know, when I came back to the Catholic Church, I was a Protestant pastor for 12 years. And I got to tell you, as a married man with kids, I was gone a lot. I was gone to church on Sunday. We were all there. Wednesday night, I had to teach.

And typically, there was a board meeting, an elders meeting, or some kind of meeting that I had to go to. Or I was out at the hospital, praying for people, a meeting with a family to prepare for a funeral and typically these things were were in the evening. If I could do anything differently about my past, it would be the advice that Billy Graham learned. A reporter asked Billy, if you could do everything over again, what would you do differently? He didn't even pause. He said, less time in ministry, more time with my family. Unfortunately, we kind of learned these things by looking in the rear view mirror. But your children, they need you.

They need you. And oftentimes, the most difficult of your children, they might even smart off to you. They might even just rebel. They might resist. Give you that look, whatever it is. If it seems that they're pushing you away, you got to remember,

the thing they're pushing away is the very thing they need. and if you're not going to press in and bear the load and step up to your task and do what is required of you and you can control, then who is? Who is? Don't chicken out. Lean in. Be a dad. Be a mom. What about at work? What's in front of you at work? Only you can determine that, right? but you can worry about everything else or focus on what is right in front of you, what's within your control. Give, again, what you cannot control to the Lord.

And then I think about another category. We have home, we have work. I think you could probably put in there, you know, health and staying in shape and those types of things for sure. Even eating right. What's on your plate, you know? what's the right thing to do? How do you bear the load? But the third category that I would bring up is the future.

We worry about so many things in the future that we don't do what's in front of us. I remember something my dad said to me when I was growing up. My dad was a man of pithy sayings, you know? The only free cheese is on a mousetrap, Bub. He had all these sayings. I call them Proverbs 32, chapter 32. And they're my dad's wisdom. And I'll never forget what he said about two things. One, when I got my license at 16 and I asked to use the car, he told me that drive according to the law, speed limit, merging, left hand turns, whatever, whatever it is. and I remember I'm telling me that a speeding ticket is the biggest waste of money.

You are not going to get a thing out of it by going 10 miles over the speed limit. You're going to actually lose. But the thing that I was thinking of pertaining to this show is that he said that worry is the worst thing you can do for your mind, is to worry. He said, you are going to use energy today for what may never happen tomorrow. My dad always discouraged me from worrying. So when it comes to your future, you do have to think about the future a bit, right? That's prudence. St. Thomas Aquinas said that prudence is going to the end. And then looking back, you know, if your end is heaven, then go there in your mind, look

back to this life and ask what are the prudential decisions that need to be made? What what is on your plate right now that's going to get you to that goal? You want your children to be with you in heaven? I'll never forget what one woman told me one time. She said, I said, what is your goal in life? And she said this, and you can, I suppose you could argue the wording of it, but she said, my goal is that one day I will dance with my entire family in heaven. I'm sure she wanted to meet the Lord too. But you know what I mean? Her goal was, I want everybody to be together in heaven.

Okay. Then what's in front of you? What are you paying attention to? You know, what's on your plate? You can worry about everything else or focus on what is in front of you. What is within your control? Give what you cannot control to the Lord. in terms of balancing all of this, you can trust in truth.

And that's what Paul said in Romans 828. We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him and who are called according to his purpose. So when you're thinking about what is in front of you right now this day, think about his purpose. Paul doesn't say anything like we know that in everything God works for good with all those who worry. He doesn't say that. Those who love God who are called, which you are according to his purpose.

Very, very powerful. He talks to the Corinthians about it too. He says, by the way, I'll stick these in the notes for you. Because I know you're running or you're driving or getting dinner ready. what's on your plate is what you will be responsible for someday. And Paul reminded the Corinthians of it when he said, for we must all appear, that word all in Greek. Do you know what it means?

All. And you are not part of any other group. You're a part of the all. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. So that each one, listen to this. You don't want to miss it. so that each one may receive good or evil. Now, this is the important part, according to what he has done in the body.

Are you doing in the body what is in front of you, what God has called you to, with your home, work, with your future? Well, times, you know, we do get, we get caught up, don't we? We get lost in the weeds. become so busy. It's like you're in an emotional tornado or something. And a lot of times, looking forward isn't the problem. It's looking at the past. And the past is what's in front of you.

Worry, regret, discouragement, disappointment, betrayal. That's where you want to live. You can look back there. But Paul talks about letting go of the past. looking forward, right? We're talking about the future here. He said in Philippians 3, 13 to 14, he said, brethren, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do, one thing I do, and I've talked a lot to you about priority,

you know, in the past. He says, one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. And that'll affect what's in front of you today. He says, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Paul is great. He is great. And of course, if you want some wisdom in this area, you need to tap into the book of Proverbs.

Proverbs 4, stay on your path. Don't veer. And it says in Proverbs, this is so good. Let your eyes look directly forward. and your gaze be straight before you. Take heed to the path of your feet. Then all your ways will be sure. You know what?

I looked up the Hebrew. The word all in all your ways will be sure. You know what it means. So I would give you the advice that Paul said to the Philippines. He said, don't be anxious. He said, have no anxiety about anything. But in everything, by prayer and supplement. My friend, that is a key point in understanding what is in front of you, what's on your plate,

what you can bear, what your responsibility is. Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication. With Thanksgiving, be thankful and let your request be made known to God. But I want to end with this one. This is the most direct scripture that I can find in the Bible that talks about paying attention to what's in front of you. Do you remember towards the end of John, John 21, 18 through 22, Peter got into a conversation with the Lord and he was really interested in what the other guys were supposed to be doing? Have you ever been in that, that jag before? That rut.

Well, they should be doing this and they should be doing that. That guy should be doing this. And here's Peter. You're going to love it. And I'll end with this. Peter turned and saw following them the disciple whom Jesus loved. You know who that is, right, John, who had lain close to his breast at the supper and it said, Lord,

who is it that is going to betray you? When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, Lord, what about this man? And this is after the Lord told Peter what's going to happen at the end of his life, which we know he was crucified upside down in Rome. And Jesus was giving him a forecast to the future. And Peter said to Jesus, well, Lord, what about this man? John. Listen to what Jesus said.

And think about it all day. Jesus said to him, if it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me. That is, in theological circles, what we call golden. Absolutely golden. Well, I hope this has been helpful. Take some of this into your life today. Do me a favor.

Share it with people that need to hear it. just share it with five people. There's got to be five people in your life that need to hear some encouragement for today. Maybe it's your kids, even if they're adults, share it with them. Share the good news. Let's pray. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. Lord Jesus, we love you so much. And we thank you for giving us life today. And we thank you for bringing us into the life of the Trinity. And we thank you for allowing us to engage in your mission. Lord, you have, you've done everything. Not only did you die for us, but you sent the Holy Spirit to guide us.

You created us in your image and likeness to be like you. Lord, help us to not be distracted, but to pay attention to what's in front of us. In Jesus' name, amen.