Distractions

Distractions are everywhere. Around every corner is a new “thing” to push us off our path or interrupt our stride. Some of these “things” are sinful, others are just that: distractions. You may be working on a project for work or school and are distracted by a text message from a friend telling you to check out his or her Facebook page that leads you to a website with a 30 minute video of something your friend thought was awesome. And in the process of all of this, you realize you’ve just wasted an hour of your life that you can never get back; not to mention you could have used that hour to finish the aforementioned project.

But what about things that distract us from God? Doesn’t the busyness of our whole life sometimes become a distraction that forces us to put God on a shelf to be brought down only when absolutely necessary? As people, we typically pride ourselves on being self-sufficient. We can do almost anything without the help of anyone else; including God. Sometimes we even convince ourselves that “God only helps those who help themselves.” The fact is that this is a lie. By excluding God from, what we see as, the mundane and insignificant parts of our lives, we have shortchanged ourselves by missing out on the intimacy that God want us to have with Him. God doesn’t want to be catastrophe insurance; He wants to be near to us always. But how often in a day, do we truly stop to think about God? So today, as you read this, I offer you a challenge. Set a timer to go off every 15 minutes. When that timer goes off…think about God; pray; or even read a verse or 2 of scripture. The point is that we need to intentionally and deliberately enter the presence of God throughout our day or else at the end of the day, we may go to sleep having not considered God at all. And that would be foolish.