Distractions

¹⁰ For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.  (2 Tim. 4:10a)

I like working with wood and have a small shop in my garage.  A few days ago I was milling a piece of trim.  I looked at the finished portion, admiring how it looked while at the other end, the router bit took a bite out of my little finger – maybe that’s why they call them “bits.”  Not a serious injury, but it will remind me to keep my eye on what I’m doing and not be distracted.

We Christians allow so many things to distract us from the “narrow path.”  We are so easily turned away.  Demas was a guy who hung out with Paul in prison.  He’s mentioned in both Colossians and Philemon as one of Paul’s inner circle in his first incarceration in Rome’s Mamertine Prison.  But Demas chose the world over the gospel.

Imagine what it would be like to be discipled by the Apostle Paul.  How could anyone be led astray, but Demas was. Don’t think you can’t.  We think we’ve overcome so much temptation in our lives, and that’s the problem.  The only thing guiding us through temptation is God’s Spirit within us.  When we start believing it’s us who can resist alone, we fall.  Satan knows that and watches us to see when we might get smug about having conquered a certain area of sin, and that’s when he strikes.

Distractions can be tricky.  I love magic.  The magician’s job is to get us to look at the right hand while he’s doing something tricky with his left, to look at the shiny ting over here while he’s doing something he doesn’t want us to see what’s happening over there.  It’s a trick, the magician is fooling us, but we have an understanding with him that we know it’s all an illusion.  The thrill is in the wonder of not knowing how he fooled us.

But, away from the theater, we stop looking for tricks.  Humans, especially Christians, are typically trusting even though Jesus Himself told us to be as wise as serpents.  All sorts of things can distract us from the gospel or from the work God has for us.  Maybe the music in church is too loud, or too soft, or you prefer hymns, or the carpet is the wrong color.  You were on the committee that picked the carpet, but your choice was voted down.  Every time you enter that sanctuary now all you see is the carpet.  You don’t listen to the message because that carpet just isn’t right, and you’re distracted. we don’t understand these are tricks too.

Maybe it’s doubt.  Doubt can distract us from His work.  Maybe they’re looking for volunteers for Children’s Ministry, teachers in the adult Bible classes, cooks for the Senior Dinner, and you just can’t do it because you’re just too unworthy. So we make up excuses:  “ I don’t know enough, kids scare me, I can’t boil water without burning it,” and so on.  We think we’re unworthy, but we’re called to be set out, to be holy, to be the saints:

⁷ To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  (Rom. 1:7)

Don’t let doubt distract you.  An old saying goes, “God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called.”  Don’t hesitate. Step out and see what God can do.

Another and more serious distraction is the one Demas yielded to.  We want to fit in, to be one of the gang, to be friends with the “cool kids.”  But, in doing so, we desert God’s people and His plan for our lives.  Demas ended up walking away from Christ to love the world. He got distracted.

Lastly, we can be distracted by something that sounds true but will slowly draw you into anti-Christian beliefs.  Facilitation with the occult, with a cult or cults, with mediums, psychics, and the like is to be distracted by the enemy’s shiny thing over there while you ignore the Truth the Holy Spirit is presenting over here. Some Christians are called to share with cultists, occultists, mediums, etc. But unless you’re one of those, stay away.

Why is this important”

It may not be that God is silent in our lives at times; it may be that our distractions are too loud.

When we spend so much time in doubt, worry, petty differences, small irritations, we’re spending much less time on the major things: the gospel and our relationship with Christ.

Four years ago, I wrote a blog entitled “TIAM.”  The letters stand for “This Isn’t About Me.”  When we start to believe our Christian walk is about satisfying us rather than satisfying Jesus, we have started down the wrong road letting distractions draw us away from the Truth or from the tasks God has for us to do.

Let’s keep our eye on the work being done, on Christ, and not on that shiny thing or the pretty piece of trim.  There will be fewer painful experiences that way.