Distracting Distractions

On Saturday, my family went to the air show in Moose Jaw and it was great! To make things even better, most of my extended family and some other friends met us there too. All told, we had approximately 20 people in our entourage.

What was not so great, though, was trying to move that big group without losing people along the way. We would start walking and someone would stop to look at an airplane. Then someone else would stop to get a souvenir. A little farther along, one of us would run into someone they knew and would stand there and talk for a while. There were just a lot of things distract us.

Most of the time, distractions are not a big deal. However, a story from the life of Christ teaches that some distractions are much more serious.

“As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. However, Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, ‘Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!’

‘Martha, Martha,’ the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her’"(Luke 10:38-42).

Notice the words that describe Martha in this passage: Distracted, worried and upset about many things. Does that sound like your life? It sounds like mine at times. It is easy to become so busy that life looses its focus and its joy.

Notice, too, though that Martha was not doing anything “bad” or “wrong”. Running around and getting the house ready was a “good” thing, but listening to Jesus and paying attention to him, as Mary did, was the “better” thing.

The big danger in life is not that we end up doing terrible things, but that we get distracted from the “best things” – the things of God.

Being distracted at an air show means that it is going to take longer to get to where you want to go. Being distracted spiritually means that you may miss the destination altogether.

Do not allow “the good” things in life to distract you from “the best” thing.

In The Light

“Lewis and Clark Caverns” is a huge limestone cave just outside of Bozeman, Montana. When we were there recently, a tour guide told us this story.

When the cave was being developed for tourists, the government sent the “Civilian Conservation Corps” (CCC) to do the work. The CCC did not pay very well, so one young man came up with a plan to supplement his income.

One Friday night, instead of leaving with his co-workers, this young man stayed in the cave. He planned to come out of his hiding place, collect some limestone, take it to town and sell it to the tourists.

The only problem was that his candle, his only source of light, did not last as long as he had hoped. When it went out, he found himself in such darkness that he could not find his way out. In fact, he could not move at all.

When his co-workers returned on Monday morning, they found the man still in the cave. Three days of being in total darkness had taken a toll on him. He was so disoriented that he thought he was standing up when he was actually lying down. As well, his eyes had become so used to the dark that when they brought him out into the light, he could not see anything. In fact, it took three days for his sight to return to normal.

Being in total darkness was not just uncomfortable or unfortunate: it was harmful.

Interestingly, when the Bible talks about a life without God, it often refers to it as “darkness” and it can be equally harmful to us.

Fortunately, we have a choice.

“This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:5-7).

God’s simple message is, “Come out of the darkness and live in the light!”

Is it worth the Battle?

A while ago, I saw a couple of deer heads mounted on a wall. That is not that notable in this part of the world, but this pair was unique, because their horns were intertwined.

Two bucks had been fighting and headbutting one another when they got their horns so tangled up that they could not free themselves. In fact, they were so strongly caught that one of the deer eventually died and then, finally, a hunter shot the other one. The mount on the wall was done in such a way so that those two bucks are still stuck together.

Now, think about this: Had those two not been fighting or trying to prove that they were the strongest, they may still be alive today. However, because they decided to try to beat each other down, both of them ended up dead.

In Galatians 5:26 comes to mind here. It says, “Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying one another”.

I am told that the word that is translated “provoking” could also be translated “challenging one another”.

This passage is a reminder to churches everywhere. We are not to become so conceited that we look down on our brothers and sisters. We are not to envy one another and allow that to ruin our relationships. We are not supposed to be challenging one another and trying to beat one another down, just to show who is the strongest and the most powerful. The church is not about pride, power and conceit. Instead it is to be about things like “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23).

Those two deer ended up killing one another in a battle to see who was the toughest. The same thing can occur today if we are not smarter.

“If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other” (Galatians 5:15).