Distractions

Do you ever get distracted?

Have you ever started a project and then not finished it because your mind wandered to somewhere else?  And then you remembered another thing that needed doing.  Or a phone call you needed to make.  And then you decided to check Facebook or your texts.  And then you needed a snack.  But maybe you should walk the dog first.  But I need to finish this chapter. Except I just remembered that I have clothes in the washing machine that need to go in the dryer.  But first I'll go make another cup of coffee.  Now what was I doing? 

Can anyone relate?

We all get distracted from time to time.  Life is busy, and our schedules are filled with places to be and things to do. 

Sometimes distractions are a good thing.  We can be going through the busyness of the day and then find ourselves distracted by the beauty of a flower.  Or by a sunset. Or by a song we hear.  Or by the sound of children at play. At those times we hit the pause button on life, set aside for a moment whatever we might have been focused on, and enjoy the beauty.  We take time to smell the roses, to borrow a phrase.  Those are good distractions.

Too often, however, distractions are not good things. 

We too often allow distractions keep us from the Word of God.  We allow the busyness of life to get in the way.  We even allow good things, like family and friends, to become distractions, keeping us from best things, like time with the Lord. We too often use friends and family as an excuse, rather than seeking to find the right balance.  As a result, relationships with family, with friends, and with the Lord can suffer.

We allow the media to distract us.  This week the media is making much of a few words in a candidate's wife's speech that sound very much like the speech given by a candidate's wife in a speech eight years ago.  And there are similarities.  But if you go back and listen to every candidate's wife's speech in every election year, they are all remarkably similar.  They all follow the same template.  Even so, this is being debated ad nauseum in newspapers and on talk shows.  And police officers are dying.

If we follow the media's lead and keep our focus on a candidate's wife's speech, we won't be paying attention to the other speeches.  We won't be paying attention to the hate being stirred up and the violence being perpetrated against police officers.  We might forget about deleted e-mails.  We might not focus on the real issues of the day.

The media would like to keep us distracted.  Politicians would like to keep us distracted. The enemy of our souls would like to keep us distracted.

That's the greatest danger of all.  That the enemy of our souls would keep us so distracted, whether by busyness or by false teachers or by media and political pundits with their particular agendas.  That distraction is the one we must guard most against.

The enemy of our souls would like to keep us so busy and so distracted by our religion and our politics and our good works that we miss the most important thing - our relationship with Jesus.

Don't give your enemy the victory!  Don't get distracted!

"You therefore, beloved....be on your guard."  (2 Peter 3:17 NASB)

"Be on guard."  (2 Timothy 4:15 NASB)

"Be on guard, so that your heart will not be weighted down...."  (Luke 21:34 NASB)

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places."  (Ephesians 6:12 NASB)

"Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith."  (Hebrews 12:2 NASB)