What Distractions Are Keeping You From God’s Plan?

One of my favorite high school memories is driver’s ed, which just happened to be in the middle of the floods of 1993, a memorable time itself. Before we were allowed out in the driver’s ed cars, we had to sit in driving simulators and drive along with a video. The simulators would transmit our actions to the instructor, who could see if our reaction times were good enough to move on. Just like it was yesterday, I remember complaining because the video seemed unrealistic - it showed a little girl running into the street, someone opening their car door into traffic, a dog crossing the street, car horns in the background, a driver running a stop sign ... on and one for several minutes. How could I concentrate on driving when they were throwing all these other people and situations into the mix?

Low and behold, on the way home from one of those driver’s ed classes, my very own street turned into one of those videos. There were kids playing on the sidewalk, people getting in and out of their cars, animals crossing the street and several other scenarios straight out of our class. I couldn’t ignore these people and the possibilities, but I didn’t have to focus on them so much that I wasn’t paying attention to the actual driving of my car.

Clearly, I am the queen of distraction. If I’m looking at the stuff around me and not concentrating on the task at hand, I veer off into the abyss, never to be heard from again. It’s like having too many tabs open in your web browser and trying to keep them all straight.

Never is this more of a problem than when I’m trying to study my Bible. I sit down at the table and begin to read, only to hear a dog trying to drink water from an empty bowl. So I get up quick to fill the bowl, and then I have to scratch that dog behind the ears for a minute. And while I’m in the kitchen, I notice a couple of dishes in the sink, so I take a moment and put them in the dishwasher. But when I go back to the table, I realize that my coffee cup is empty, so I’d better go make more. See the pattern? I’m getting things done, but not the most important one - reading my Bible and spending time with the Lord.

Most of the time our distractions are good things in and of themselves, things we need to get done at some point to be productive or be a blessing. It feels wonderful to get something done, but not at the expense of our priorities - Scripture and time with God.

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Philippians 3:13-15

God has a plan for us today, and it doesn’t include distractions that pull us away from Him. When we are more focused on the prize He has set before us than we are on the little stuff of this world, we find that deep fellowship with Him that we’re craving. There is a time and place for those things, and we glorify Him by doing them and praising Him for them, but they are never more important than His plan and His desires for us. Are there any of those things in your own life that are drawing you away from God little by little? I pray that today we’ll set our minds and our eyes on Him, and Him alone.

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