Distractions

One of the impediments to a life of stewardship is continual distractions. We live in a distracted age. It is difficult to have conversations that go beyond the superficial because most people never think about the important questions in life. They are too busy being distracted to discover purpose or meaning in life. The spirit of the age is summed up in the lyrics of Edie Brickell's song What I Am:

I'm not aware of too many things
I know what I know if you know what I mean
Philosophy, is the talk on a cereal box
Religion, is a smile on a dog
I'm not aware of too many things
I know what I know if you know what I mean
Choke me in the shallow water before I get too deep
What I am is what I am are you what you are or what?

We are too busy during the holidays to think and meditate on Christ and how devotion to Him should be our focus. We have too many holiday parties to attend. Too many presents to buy. Too much television to watch. The urgent chokes the eternal.

This is not a new problem. Blaise Pascal- the brilliant mathematician and philosopher- wrote about this in Pensees. Fragment 133 he writes, "Being unable to cure death, wretchedness and ignorance, men have decided, in order to be happy, not to think about such things." Pascal describes some of the ways that people choose diversions rather than contemplating the big questions in life.

Pascal writes on how people are too busy hunting, gambling, going to war and amusing themselves. We shun anything of significance. Gambling is still distracting people daily. But Pascal would have had a stronger case to write about in 2006 than he did in 1660. He did not foresee the greatest of all distractions: entertainment on demand. We live in an age where we can avoid ever having a serious thought.

Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 11:3, "But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ." As we enter a time of reflection at the end of the year, my prayer is that we will reflect on the big questions and seek to limit distractions to those questions:

1. Why am I here?
2. What happens to me after I die?
3. Is there something true to live and die for?
4. How can I glorify God the most?
5. How can I be the maximum amount of good to the maximum amount of people?

Jonathan Edwards wrote in his 70 Resolutions: "Resolution 9- Resolved, to think much on all occasions of my own dying, and of the common circumstances which attend death." Thinking about death is the gateway to living. The big questions are calling? Will we answer?

For His Glory,

Ashley Hodge