Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great
cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that
so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for
us. Let
us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the
joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the
right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)
Yesterday morning, I found myself
in a room with a TV on, starting with
newstainment, running through a Court
reality , a quiz show and finally a panel style talk show. I spent part of the morning trying to work on
this essay, trying to pick a passage,
trying to put my thoughts together. Needless to say, until I decided to write
about the fact that all the words and noise, I was too distracted to come up
with anything. This isn't the first time something like this has happened. I
can tell stories about catching ads or things said on TV that my coworkers
didn't notice.
I don't know what
distracts you. Sometimes, I think everything distracts me. It doesn't
matter how important the thing is that I'm trying to do. The three things that
seem to be a factor for my distraction
are my interests and the importance of the thing on which I'm trying to
focus my attention, similarity between what I'm trying to do and the
distraction. Let a bird fly by the window while I'm visiting, and chances are
that I I can listen to instrumental
music and write. Anything that includes words makes it nearly impossible to
work with words. Let the words not make
sense in some way and it's guaranteed
to destroy my focus on my own words.
Distractions are inevitable. Some are easier
to avoid than others. The easiest solution is to throw them off. Turn off the
TV or stereo. Refuse to buy or borrow the distraction. I know of some writers
who move to a secluded cabin in the middle of nowhere to write. Others lock
their door and you aren't likely to disturb them more than once.
Sometimes, none of that seems to help.
Four passages of Scripture come to mind that illustrate ways that Jesus dealt
with distractions. First and foremost,
when that "distraction" was a person with a real need, He dealt with
the distraction by helping the person. Sometimes, when we can't seem to avoid a
distraction, we need to look to see if there's a person attached to it who
needs us to stop being distracted by our own agenda.
When the distraction was someone who was just being distracting, He sometimes quoted Scripture (Matthew 4.)
That's often pointed out, but what He was doing in quoting Scripture wasn't
"just" drawing on the Word of God. If the Word weren't true, quoting
Scripture would have been a waste of His time. Quoting Scripture is focusing on
the truth. He was ruthless in setting those who sought to distract Him straight.
He went so far as to call Peter, "Satan."
He also focused on His end goal: the
joy of pleasing the Father and the joy of saving us. He didn't simply know the
truth, He connected joy to it. Too often distractions allure us. You aren't as
likely to pay attention to something less if you're really after something else.
When it comes down to it, not being
distracted comes down to just a two points: love (of God and of our fellow man) and
practice (also known as discipline.)
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