There's a lot that can be said about a strategically placed distraction.
They can come from ourselves, someone else, our own priorities, but no matter what their mission is to keep you unaware of what you're supposed to be paying attention to.
It's funny that just this past week Az has been displaying on the road, signs that say "Highways don't kill people, Distracted Drivers Do". Whilst reading one of those signs for the umpteenth time, I actually got a little distracted myself and almost side-swiped the divider. This had me thinking.... Distractions are everywhere this week. And they come in different forms.
Let's take, for instance, this recent situation with my friends.
Last Friday, at the movies... Now this story is blatant with it's intent, if you look at it from a spiritual perspective.
So last Friday a few of my friends decided to go to the movies and see Son of God. Me and one of my friend (J) are intent on getting one of our other friends (P) saved (I'm using initials here so the confusion doesn't exist). So here we are sitting in the theater with literally only 10 or so people.
Enter the distraction...
We manage, somehow, to sit in the seats directly in front of 2 people that decided to bring in 2 toddlers. Or should I say they decided to sit behind us.
Literally throughout the entirety of this 2 and a half hour movie these babies are talking, making noises, whining, pushing the backs of our seats, & just being completely annoying. I mean ALL if our seats got pushed at least 3x each. During Son of God.
Now we contemplated moving but there were 4 of us and we all had stuff so I really didn't feel like moving, plus I felt like the noise was loud enough that it wouldn't matter where we moved; these kids would be heard.
So... we stayed in our seats.
But just after we get to the parts of the movie where it didn't feel rushed and we could all start grasping what was going on... P has had enough with the kids so she asks the family of 4 behind us, to move because they were being disrespectful. Mind you not once had they attempted to remove their children or redirect them from making noise or kicking/pushing our seats. So we ALL were done.
Of course they weren't about that moving life and basically tried to throw at P "wait until you have kids..." and some other irrelevant statements that had nothing to do with the fact that their children were being disruptive during a movie that we all paid for and... kind of wanted to listen to and watch.
So there was a little drama and after things calmed down P was still mad so... her head space was gone...
You see where I'm going here? The kids were a distraction. During a movie that could have easily watered or planted some seeds of truth for P (and really for all of us in the theater), all of in the theater were thinking about this current state of tensionin the theater.
This led to J and I being irritated and calling it what it was... the devil. Lol
When we say that, we're not saying the kid was possessed, per say, BUT we are saying that the enemy used that opportunity to distract us ALL from getting fed and taking in truth.
And in all realness I found myself getting distracted by attempting to find errors in the movie. Either because something was out of order or because there were things that were just missing.
So maybe the distraction wasn't even bad because the movie wasn't the full truth. Stories were either edited or embellished for the movies sake as if the truth isn't enough. But I won't go into that rant right now.
I just wanted to note how powerful a distraction can be. We just wanted the opportunity to at least have room for conversation about the movie afterwards, but because of the drama... we had to de-escalate & recap the drama versus the Word.
Let me go one step further and be honest...
I have not had one single date with Jesus since I posred about it last week.
From the exhaustion of last week, to having visitors over the weekend, to yet another exhausting week, to work keeping me away from home until late...
I have been busy.
And NO time has been made for those 40minutes to spend my time with Him. I've read my devotionals, prayed, and listened to my worship music, but no official dates (in relation to last week's challenge). That's actually why I decided to write this piece. I noticed what was happening on Sunday. From the stuff with my friends and my slacking I knew what was happening. There were some strategic elements of distraction at play here and I was falling right into it all.
The bad part is, I saw what was happening and didn't take control of it. I even got so exhausted today that I forgot all about even writing about this. And for those that this may help, that's saying something about a distraction' s abilities. There's a saying that goes something like, the devil may not keep you tempted, but he will keep you busy... well, that's veen me these past 8 days. Completely out of it. I've been seeing some great things happen, but in the same token I haven't even been able to celebrate because I'm too pooped at the end of it all.
I write all this to ask, have You been getting distracted lately? Are there areas that you've wanted to focus on, but you've found yourself getting pulled away? And the thing that's occupying your time may not even be a bad thing. It could be work, family, a conversation with a friend in need (that just happens to take place during yoir designated "date time"), or anything else, but you have to question... How is/did/will that activity affect my focus on my spiritual goal?
And these daily Dates are a goal. There's a great verse that has been in my head all week (mainly due to my challenges with eating but it all relates):
1 Corinthians 10:23 NLT
You say, “I am allowed to do anything” —but not everything is good for you. You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is beneficial.
The shorthand version of that is this:
Everything is Permissible (or allowed), but everything is NOT Beneficial.
When avoiding distractions in your relationship with God, think about how whatever else it is you want to do will affect the effort that you need to make in drawing nearer to Him.
You can talk to your friend on the phone during your date time but will that benefit you. You chose that time, hopefully, because it was convenient and worked with your schedule. I choose 6:30 because it gives me time to get home fron work, deal with the dogs, & even wind down a little. But also by 7:30 I can take time to talk to a friend or watch t.v.
Don't allow something that can be postponed or even completely left alone to take your time away from developing a VERY beneficial relationship.
That's my goal moving forward.
I thank God for His grace and I try my best to do the beneficial.
Stay Blessed y'all.
♡♥
-Benita
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