We are quite talented at
the art of being distracted,
while driving
or walking through life,
because we've practiced it a lot.
The choices we make,
this or
"Oh, look at that," amuse us
until we can't find our way out.
A glance or a momentary indulgence of
"Oh, it won't matter"
"That will make me happy"
"If only...."
"Just one more show, store, website, potato chip....."
does not just become a habit,
but a pattern.
These barely perceptible decisions
lead us off-course,
into a miry bog of wasted time or efforts,
promising by the carload what they cannot give,
running us up on the curb,
and abandoning us on the side of the road.
We had a whole new day ahead of us,
a block of time, an opportunity, a scenic highway.
And it evaporated.
We woulda, shoulda, coulda.
Distractions come in Costco-size cartons,
growing exponentially
from simple diversions,
to speed bumps, dead ends,
and broken down in the middle of nowhere.
Therefore we must pay much closer attention
to what we have heard,
lest we drift away from it.
Hebrews 2.1
A distraction is loving something else a little more,
thinking it is not changing us,
and then suddenly being enslaved by it.
"I don't have another choice."
" I have to." Again.
Right now is followed by three exclamation points!!!
Our bag of excuses always overfloweth. We can justify anything,
no longer seeing it as a distraction but a need.
But what is this forming in me?
Today we can choose another path even right where we are,
take a different road through our days,
moving toward growth in some way.
Am I trying something new, being faithful, or ignoring a call?
If things are going to be different,
something has to change.
It doesn't have to be this way.
In his book The Common Rule, author Justin Earley wrote:
"...by changing one habit,
we simultaneously change ten other habits."
Because one road is connected
to a thousand other byways.
Put it down. Turn it off. Close it. Set it out at the curb.
Not just walk away,
but walk toward something else.
The smallest step directs to the next.
"Come to Me."
Grant to me, O Lord,
to know what I ought to know,
to love what I ought to love,
to praise what delights You most,
to value what is precious in Your sight,
to hate what is offensive to You.
Do not suffer me to judge
according to the sight of my eyes,
nor to pass sentence
according to the hearing of ignorant men,
but to discern with true judgement
between things visible and spiritual
and above all things to inquire
what is the good pleasure of Your will.
--Thomas a’ Kempis (1380-1471)
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