Distraction

“Evil is whatever distracts.” – Franz Kafka

I’m writing a book about distraction.

I’ve been writing it for the past nine years.

I would have had it done by now, but…you guessed it.

I keep getting distracted.

Oh, the irony…

While it reads like a joke, it’s true. I have only my lack of focus to blame. It’s not like I deliberately set out not to write a book. I actually want to write it, want to see it published.

But you know what they say about good intentions…

No wonder the word that we read as “sin” in English translations of the Bible comes from the Greek word “hamartia” or ”hamartano”, meaning “to be without a share in, to miss the mark, to err, be mistaken, to miss or wander from the path of uprightness and honour, to do or go wrong, to wander from the law of God, violate God’s law”.

Hmm…sounds like distraction to me.

Does that sort of thing ever happen to you? You don’t really intend to go sideways, but all of a sudden you look around and realize that you are way off target, and sometimes can’t even figure out how you got so far out of whack?

I think sometimes we equate sin with something willful, a deliberate act of selfishness, and forget that sin can simply be an unintentional lack of focus, a missing of the mark whether we meant to or not.

My friend Scott asked me yesterday, “Have you ever been driving along the road, focused your attention on something off to the side, and found yourself drifting off the road toward that object?”

It’s true, we tend to be drawn toward what we put our focus on, whether that is our desired destination or not. And there’s a lot of stuff competing for our attention these days.

If we were asked to draw up our list of top priorities, would TV, Facebook, or video games ever make the top 3?

Then maybe they shouldn’t command our attention for 4-5 hours per day…?

As helpful as it may be to identify our own personal sources of distraction and be aware of them, let’s not focus on them. If we do, we just might be drawn back to them. Instead, let’s think of all the things we should be focusing on.

Me? I’m going “old school” and drawing up a daily list to help me keep on track. What would be on yours?

What deserves your attention today?

“In our world, where hundreds of things distract us from God, we have to intentionally and consistently remind ourselves of Him.” – Francis Chan

Tagged as: discipline, focus, sin