Distracted Driver

Distracted driver. That’s what the police officer labeled me after pulling me over for speeding. She said that I was not paying attention while driving. But how was that so, I was not eating or drinking. I was not texting or reading emails. I was not putting on make up or changing the radio. I was only talking on the telephone about the upcoming ladies retreat, so how could I be distracted?

At the time, I thought she was wrong, but now I realize that more often than I care to admit, I am distracted as I drive along. It might not be talking on the phone, but my mind is wandering. It may be that I am thinking about something going on at work. Or it might be looking at the beauty of the surrounding area. Or sometimes just reviewing my ‘to do” list. While doing these things I can be distracted and not paying complete attention to what is going on around me.

I know it is pretty scary to think of not only me driving with distractions, but that the road is probably filled with people who are only partially engaged with what they are doing behind the wheel.

In our world today there are distractions everywhere-things that vie for our attention, our time, our resources, so I began to think that God must look down on us and say look at those “distracted Christians.”  As His children our thoughts first and foremost should be about Him. Our waking moments should be about Him, our minds should have Him flowing throughout different junctures all day long and our final thoughts in the evening should be reflections of our day together. 

However if we are honest many days might pass without much time being focused on Him. We may have a short quiet time in the morning and we may bless the food before we eat it and we pray before going to bed, but distractions hit us all day long—things that take our hearts and minds far from Him into our own little world of cares and concerns. 

Satan likes nothing more than for us to be too busy for God, because if he can’t have us for his own, he certainly does not want us to be focused on God. So we will be pinged each day with things that will entice us to be distracted from fellowship with our Father.

What then are we to do? Philippians 4:8 gives us wise counsel. It says to think about things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy. In other words, think about Jesus because that is who He is. It’s hard to do and means that we have to refocus our minds frequently each day. Maybe it is a reminder, maybe a sticky note, maybe an appointment, but whatever it takes it will be worth it not to be a distracted Christian for fellowship is what we were created to do.

Philippians 4:9 Finally brothers whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

www.hearthope.org