Have you ever been on your way home from work, making the final turn onto your street and realize…”Wait, how did I get here?” You remember leaving work, but you don’t remember the 15-20 minutes between then and now. You don’t remember taking the familiar turns or if you went too fast through the speed trap a few miles back. Did you even stop at the red lights? You were distracted, probably just listening to that ADD dialogue in your head. Or maybe you actually have something important to analyze. For me it’s usually the ADD thing.
So here’s my confession for the day…for the year: I’ve been letting myself get way too distracted with idle things. Sure it’s good to have some down time, but I had crossed over into idleness. Instead of using the small amount of discretionary time I have to press in toward God, or engage my wife, or at least some worthwhile hobby, I was vegetating. I was convicted of this at one point. After having the dream I told of in my last post, I put down my main vice for a few months only to find that I filled my time with something else to distract me. For me it was more than an addiction to a particular vice (a game on my phone in this case). I had a spirit of distraction. For many it’s busyness, but for me it’s distraction. And I’m willing to bet I’m not the only one.
Just like there are a million things to busy ourselves with and stray from our first love as Martha did, there are a million things to captivate our attention that are not sitting at Jesus’ feet like Mary (Luke 10:38-42). I’m going to briefly name a few, although I’m sure you know what I’m going to say.
1. Social Media – The average US consumer spends 2.75 hours per day on mobile devices (Adweek.com). 968 million people log on to Facebook every day (Facebook). The average time spent on social media in general is 1.72 hours per day (Global Web Index). 50% of users 18-24 log on to Facebook when they first wake up (The Social Skinny). Ever heard of no Bible no breakfast? How about no Bible no Facebook?
2. Television – Just one stat here: The Nielson report states that the average American watches 5 hours of television a day (David Hinckley, NY Daily News). Have you noticed how so many shows end each week on cliff-hangers? They’re making sure you wouldn’t dare miss next week’s episode. And many of us have one or more of these shows for each night of the week.
3. Video Games (including mobile app games) – Dr. Douglas A. Gentile studied over 3,000 children and found that their average weekly consumption of video games was 20 hours (Addictions.com). But if you think it’s just a kid thing, 68% of gamers are over 18 (bigfishgames.com). And there are 100+ million mobile gamers in America (skillz.com). The next one is hilarious: Free-to-Play games account for 90% of the mobile game industry’s income (skillz.com).
Here’s the good news, the antidote for the sedative, the key for the captive. It’s what I imagine Mary would say. Are you ready? The cure for distraction is attraction.
Psalm 42 describes attraction for our Creator like this: “As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God” (NLT). I love that the psalmist uses a deer in the first verse of this Psalm because a deer, like any other sensible animal, thirsts for only one thing…water. It doesn’t want soda, or wine, or orange juice. I wants water; it needs water. What if we had that kind of focus, that for us there was no substitute for our sustenance other than God our Father?
Now, this may be the last place you’d expect a Tom Cruise quote, but here it comes anyway. In “The Last Samurai” Captain Nathan Algren said this of the Samurai people who had taken him captive: “They are an intriguing people. From the moment they wake, they devote themselves to the perfection of whatever they pursue. I have never seen such discipline.”
What if the outside world saw that kind of focus and devotion in the Christian population? It would be amazing! Not only to see what we could accomplish, but for the fact that people would not be able to deny their draw toward this intense and peaceful people group. Because deep down, deeper than how badly we want to know who’s going to win the game tonight and what each player’s stats are, more than we want to know what our 433rd Facebook friend said about our 627th Facebook friend, we want to experience devotion leading to excellence.
I also like that the psalmist notes the hart’s preference in the type of water. To reach the streams, the deer must leave the expansive but brakish bay, pass the murky lakes and ponds; it must go through the river valleys with their predators and hunters, and it must ascend into the hills toward the source of all water, to the mountain streams where it can drink the pure, cool water to which there is no comparison.
The psalmist turns the corner in the narrative to confess that his soul thirsts for God in that same way. “For the living God,” he echos. And because He is the living God he also gives life. Our idols are not alive and they do not give life. It seems like they do because there’s quantifiable interaction with these distraction idols. We “like,” “share,” “post,” “comment,” get “liked,” get “poked” (does anyone still poke?). We push a button, swipe the screen, get four in a row, detonate a doughnut, upgrade our town hall, gain a level. But none of it is alive; none of it gives life. It’s just a distraction, just a deception, just another nail in the coffin who’s resident is still technically alive. What’s missing? Attraction is missing.
So how do we develop attraction for a God that we know to be exciting, inspiring, and beautiful but who often seems too dimly revealed to us as such?
1. We need to confront the lie that God is boring, uninspiring, or uninvolved. Confess that He is far more beautiful a Creator than our dim, distracted eyes can see. We know it’s true. And we can start our prayers with exaltation, praising Him for His glory, His majesty, His goodness, and tell Him how much we adore Him. Do that now in your own words.
2. We need to cut out the weeds and their roots that are constricting the life out of our spirits and masking God’s pursuit of us. Jesus said to cut off your hand if it causes you to stumble (Mark 9:43). In other words, take idolatry seriously. Take a break, put it down, turn it off, or give it away. We may need to give ourselves a period of sobriety. If a season is not enough to center us, make it forever. If it feels like a sacrifice, praise God!
3. We need to pursue God willfully to know and follow hard after Him. Here are some reading suggestions:
a. The Psalms
b. “The Treasuries of David” -Charles Spurgeon’s exposition of the Psalms
c. “Crazy Love” by Francis Chan
d. “The Divine Romance” by Gene Edwards
-Understanding God’s self-abnegating pursuit of us is a great catalyst for our own pursuit of Him.
If we do these things consistently “the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.” (Helen Lemmel).
Please like, share, comment, follow…you know, all those things I’ve been ragging on. But…..be indistractible.
Provoking Iron 