Dealing with Distraction
Just sitting down to write you this morning has been an exercise in distraction
all its own – emails, phone calls, and text messages are just the start. How
about your morning?
The truth is that our lives are full of potential distractions
– jobs, family, media, and free time (what’s that?)… And in Sunday’s gospel we
hear how we might deal with them.
We pick up our story with a visit from Jesus to a friend’s
home, where Martha and her sister Mary played host. It’s commonly assumed that
Martha was busy taking care of guests while Mary just sat around - hence, Jesus
chastised Martha for her distraction and commended Mary for her attention. However
that’s not what the text says. We get no indication that Mary didn’t have as
many tasks to tend to as Martha. What we do get is the idea that Martha allowed
these tasks to distract her.
The importance of this distinction is that you and I often
feel like the spiritual life is one in which we lock ourselves into solitary
confinement, shunning responsibility, and wearing such heavy blinders that
we’re oblivious to all that might divert us.
As we know, this is not our present reality. We can never
prevent distractions, but we can improve the way we deal with them. Mary’s good
decision wasn’t that she was bereft of distraction, it’s that she did not heed
them, Mary put aside her diversions and focused on what was most important:
Christ’s voice in her life.
What are we allowing to take us away from the voice of Jesus?
How are we allowing the less important to supplant our awareness of God’s
presence? What priorities need
resetting and precedents need reexamining? Distractions are often only
distractions when we allow them to be so.
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Reading:
Practicing Resurrection – Eugene Peterson
Switch – Chip and Dan Heath
Resilient Ministry – Burns. Chapman, Guthrie