Detrimental Distractions

The other night I had just closed my eyes to go to sleep after a long day when all of a sudden, I heard a cricket cricket. I instantly sat up in my bed trying to determine where the noise was coming from. I searched and searched to no avail. I could not find this cricket anywhere. So, I got back in bed, and as soon as I did, cricket cricket. This process continued for probably 30 minutes. I found myself exhausted and absolutely frustrated by this little bug. Finally, I prayed this silly prayer, Lord please keep this bug from me…I know you made them and all, but I don’t really want him with me while I’m sleeping. Eventually, I got to sleep, but over the course of the night, I found myself waking up to make sure I didn’t have a bug on me. The next morning, I walked into the bathroom and found this little cricket squished on my floor. When I got up to use the bathroom in the midst of my cricket search, I must’ve accidentally stepped on him. I was so worried about the bug for so long, and he was already taken care of.

Similarly, sometimes I find myself so worried about the little distractions in my life when God has already taken care of the end result. So often we let little distractions keep us from the calling God had laid out for us just like I let that little bug keep me from my sleep. We get so wrapped up in all the distractions the enemy puts in our path that we can’t see the plan waiting for us on the other side. We get lost thinking our to-dos, failures, and struggles are the end goal or the end of our story when in reality they are just distractions put in our path because the enemy wants to keep us from the Promise Land God has already laid out for us.

What is a distraction? A distraction is anything that prevents you from giving your full attention to something else. To better understand what this looks like in our lives, let’s take a look at the story of Nehemiah. Nehemiah was the cupbearer for the King, meaning he would taste the food and drinks before he ate to ensure it wasn’t poisoned. One day the King found Nehemiah greatly troubled, so he asked him what was wrong. He explained that he was troubled because the exiles from Israel who had been back in Jerusalem for 100 years still hadn’t rebuilt the city walls. So, the King allowed him to go gather his people and rebuild the wall. Rebuilding the wall was something God called Nehemiah to do, and by doing so, he was following through with his calling. In chapter six of the book of Nehemiah, we read that once the enemies from neighboring cities received word that he was rebuilding the wall, they sent word to him asking to meet up nearby. However, Nehemiah recognized they were planning to harm him. He knew they were trying to distract him from finishing the wall. In verse three, he replies, “I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?” He’s really asking why the work of the Lord should stop when we are presented with distractions. This is the same question we need to be asking ourselves when the enemy throws distractions our way. Nehemiah’s enemies tried this four more times, but Nehemiah didn’t let this keep him from the path God had set before Him. So, don’t take your focus off the “wall” or the work God has called you to. God has a unique purpose for your life that the enemy is trying to keep you from with any distraction he can manage. We must continue to press forward toward the goal God has set before us.

The reality is, we live in a distraction-filled world. Our society tends to glorify the idea of multitasking. With social media, texting, work, TV shows, and so much more, we are almost always multitasking in some way, shape, or form. In this season, maybe God is teaching us to guard our focus. Everything we value and love in our lives is guarded. We have alarms on our houses because we love them. We have alarms on our cars because we love them. We have alarms on our bank account for fraud alerts because we love our money. Yet, we continually leave our focus unguarded. Our focus on the Lord is too critical for us not to guard it. As Christians, we need to learn to be really good at guarding our focus by blocking out any distractions that take our attention off of God. Doing so may look different according to the individual. It may look like deleting that social media that consumes too much of your time, distancing yourself from those people who take your focus away from God, saying no to that opportunity, etc. The fact is the people we surround ourselves with can sometimes serve as the biggest impact in guarding our focus. Why? Because distracted people distract people. Proverbs 27:17 tells us that, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” The same can be said for the opposite. When we are constantly surrounding ourselves with people who take our focus off of God in whatever way that may be, our defense against our distractions starts to lose its power.

The cure for distraction is discernment. You must know what you’re going to say yes to and what you will say no to. Every time you say yes to one thing, you are saying no to something else. So, when you say yes to Instagram, you are saying no to doing your homework. When you say yes to work, you’re saying no to family. When you are saying yes to your distractions, you’re saying no to God. I remember growing up, my parents used to walk me through potentially dangerous scenarios so I could practice saying no. They’d say, “If someone you don’t know tries to pick you up from school, what will you say?” I’d respond, “No. Then tell a teacher.” They’d say, “If someone offers you drugs, what will you say?” I’d respond, “No.” I can genuinely say, as silly as it seemed at the time, those responses that I engrained into my muscle memory, made saying “no” in those times so much easier. The same technique can be used for the distractions in our lives. Let me remind you that it’s okay to say no. Whatever distractions come your way, “no” is a complete sentence. You don’t have to provide a reason or explanation. Just as my parents told me to tell someone if those circumstances did happen, take your distractions to God. Say no, then tell God. Even Jesus would often say no to the crowd so that He might do what God was calling Him to do.

The world is all fighting for your attention, but God's calling for your life may be a soft, quiet whisper. It’s imperative that you know how to quiet the distractions so that God’s voice might be heard. God may be trying to speak to us right now, but we have so many distractions that He can’t even get a word in. The reality is, that if the enemy can’t take you from your calling, he’ll distract you. These distractions may be obvious, or they may be subtle, but they can have a huge impact on our attitude, our approach, and our faith. If the little chirp of a bug can keep me from an entire night’s sleep, imagine what intentional distractions from the enemy can do to your faith.

May your roots run deep, and your faith remain strong! As always, Stay Rooted, my friends! <3