My son asked if I had ever thought of living in an early time of history, like the first century and if it would have been better. It made me think about how full of distractions our lives are. We live in a whirlwind of digital and graphic information constantly bombarding us with noise, words, and ideas. So, I thought, why not add a little post about overcoming this problem. My phone just rang and pulled me away from writing this. While in that conversation, I realized I had not eaten breakfast and so I pulled out a bowl and milk for some cereal. However, the conversation went longer than expected and I never actually poured the cereal in the bowl. After hanging up, I came back to the laptop to finish this post, realizing as I sifted through images to add to it that I left the milk sitting out on the counter and I had not eaten anything. I also have to hurry up and finish so I can run to the paint store and get the stain to finish the second coat on our deck. Looks like a few more tweets, emails and facebook responses just came in too.
We live in a very distracted world. We get so busy with emails, phone calls, bills, work, television, radio, and stuff that it is easy to just exist and allow the important things to slip out of focus. My sister suggested that iPads and such were part of a conspiracy by those with ADD to make everyone else ADD and level the playing field! Blogs are no different. We stick links in our post and clicking on them sends you to a whole other site and you may or may not return to the original article. All of these things stop becoming tools to accomplish greater things and consume our energy and thought. We start compartmentalizing our lives into work, home, family, money, internet, and miss the whole. We easily find ourselves adrift and lose sight of our course.
It is easy to feel as if everything is competing for our time and resources, but there is a solution if Christ is Lord of our lives. When we receive Christ as our Lord, then we are redeemed from our sin and the debt it creates with God. Just as crime creates a debt to society, sin creates a debt with God, an infinite God and thus an infinite debt. But Christ, being God and man was able to pay that debt at the cross. He was able to overcome the grave, evidenced by an empty tomb. This redemption and victory restores our relationship with our Creator. He redeemed all of me and all of you (if you believe in Him as your Lord). That means ALL of my time and resources are His! My life is no longer to be compartmentalized. How I spend my time at home, work, on the internet, with friends, etc. is to be spent His way and according to His agenda, not mine. It helps to pause and think, "Am I spending this moment in a way that is in sync with Christ's agenda and purpose for my life? Most importantly, is He glorified in it?"
What about this very moment, as you read these words? I have added one more bit of digital information to your life and taken up a couple of minutes of your time. I pray the time I spent writing it and the time you spent reading it was time spent the way Christ desired and not just extra debris in the whirlwind. It doesn't mean we are free of interruptions, but distractions and interruptions are different. God works some of the most amazing things into our lives through interruptions at times. Regardless of the season or epoch, situation or circumstance, let us walk as He walked.
By the way, another view of this can be found on Jacob's Page. No, I'm not trying to make you ADD and that is why I waited and linked it here at the end!
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