Limit Your Distractions

Do you like adventure? My family and I love adventuring to see new places and have been on quite the journey this summer. We recently spent time in Colorado and let me tell you, it was simply amazing. As the Lead Pastors of Bold City Church, we wanted the opportunity to show some love to our SEU at Bold City Church students on their summer trip as well as some of our ministry friends and families after the trip was over. Our own family was so refreshed as we spent some much needed time together disconnecting from our day-to-day lives. 

Then, we came back home for just five days only to unpack and get packed up all over again to head off to Youth Camp with our students. Again, another powerful trip! Lives were changed, transformed, and young people were set on fire for the things of God! Needless to say, June and July have been special seasons for our family and our church. And yet, we’re just getting started! 

Throughout the course of the last four weeks, I realized how much easier it was to press into our Heavenly Father and spend time soaking in my secret place. Some people in the south say “The higher the hair, the closer to heaven!” I totally believe the higher the elevation, the closer to Jesus, am I right?! All joking aside, I really did notice my ability to get quiet and enter the stillness was so much easier while traveling. But, why?

The more I thought about it, I realized exactly why I felt this way. I had very few distractions on our trip out west. My phone rarely had service. I wasn’t focused on my to-do list at home nor was I concerned about responding to emails. I didn’t have my day laid out hour-by-hour anticipating the next thing. I was able to go with the flow and focus on my family. Distractions were at a minimum. 

I realize it’s not realistic for this to become our everyday scenario. We don’t have the luxury of pushing aside our roles and living a life void of responsibility. That is not what we’re called to do. However, I do wonder if many of the things we take on are burdens that aren’t ours to carry in the first place. The commitments we say “yes” to can sometimes be more overwhelming than they are life-giving. We continue to add to our already full plates that we’re desperately trying to balance instead of recognizing the unnecessary distractions for what they are. We identify them as needed. We tell ourselves that once x, y and z are completed, life will slow down. We tell ourselves that same lie week after week, year after year, and it never lets up.

What do we end up sacrificing in those seasons? Time. Energy. Moments. Peace. Distractions have a way of pulling us away from the things that matter most. You see, our distractions aren’t always sinful, but sin can often be born out of our distractions. Some distractions are relatively harmless and some are outright destructive. 

“Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us.”
Hebrews 12:1

Think about some things that serve as a distraction in your life - things that hinder you from moving forward in your true calling. Maybe it’s your phone, your social media platform of choice, certain friends and relationships, or even your habit of comparison.

Audit your own life using these examples: How often do you disengage from a potentially meaningful conversation in order to check your phone? How many times a day do you check your work email when you’re not on the clock? In regards to friendships and relationships, who are the people you spend the most time with? How frequently are you comparing your own life to someone else’s highlight reel on the internet who you’ve never even met? Or to your own friends?

These are not all inherently bad things. I am not saying you shouldn’t engage on social media. I am also not saying that you shouldn’t associate with people who don’t believe what you believe. In fact, if we are to be like Jesus and do as He did, we should take note that He often spent time with those who did not live an honorable and righteous life. But, He focused most on the twelve disciples. To boot, Jesus influenced them, He didn’t allow them to influence Him. He was in relationship and had an investment in a select few. But, He loved the masses. It’s also not a bad thing to identify good things in someone else’s life that you’d like to see in your own. But, that observation must stop short of the poisonous distraction that is comparing what God is doing in your life to what he has done in someone else’s.

You see, none of these things mentioned are necessarily sinful in their own right. But, how many times have one of these things led you down a path that opened the door to sin? Whether we want to admit it or not, our deepest longing is to be loved. It’s the truth for all of us. God designed us that way. But people pleasing and repeatedly saying yes to things we shouldn’t won’t give us the fulfillment that we truly desire. Those things will temporarily bring acceptance and comfort, but it’s short-lived. Not everyone accepted Jesus and yet He didn’t allow that to distract Him from what the Father had called Him to do. 

The Bible constantly reminds us how easily we become distracted. So, we must continuously choose to declutter our minds and refocus our thoughts.

For me, distractions are a daily struggle. Aside from ministry, I’m a wife and a mom and a friend and daughter and a sister. I’m a home chef, a taxi driver, a house cleaner and the family photographer. All of those things are titles I have in my life and roles that I fill, but even they can become a distraction. If I put my husband before my relationship with Jesus, I’ve missed it. If I put my kids before Jesus, I’ve missed it. The same goes for every other relationship and responsibility that I hold. 

Here’s one that may surprise you: ministry can even become a distraction. I can get so caught up doing all of these things for God that I sacrifice spending time with God. When I do this, I’ve missed it. Maybe you can think of some of these things in your life. Some of these are seemingly good things that interfere with what God is calling you to or who He is calling you to be. Hear me when I say this: just because it’s a good thing doesn’t mean it’s a God thing. 

Let’s revisit the text above in Hebrews and read a little further. 

“Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith.”
Hebrews 12:2

Why do you think the author of Hebrews stresses the importance of running your race with endurance?

I’ll tell you why: because it will be hard. It won’t always be simple and easy. Endurance will be a requirement. This journey with Jesus will come with bumps in the road, but I can promise you that it is so much better to run this race with him than in opposition to Him. He’s not going to force you. In Luke 11, we can see that the Holy Spirit acts like a gentleman. He will not make you walk with Him, but He will continue to hold His hand out to you. He will continue to pursue you and chase after your heart.

Here is the good news: when you do give in to your distractions and the desires of your flesh, it doesn’t mean you have to start all over. Far from it, actually. Think about a race. Any race will do - a car race, a marathon, a horse derby. Whenever the participant struggles in some way, they pick up and continue from the place they stopped. They just keep going. They don’t retreat to the starting line and neither should you. Scripture tells us that His mercies are new every morning. You get up, dust yourself off, recognize where you missed it, repent, and move on.

Repentance isn’t bad! Quite the opposite. Repentance allows you to walk closer to freedom. It’s not an optional thing, it’s an obedience thing. 

You know the hardest thing for most about following Jesus? Consistency. Consistency in the secret place - reading God’s word, praying, worshiping.

The value of consistent prayer isn’t that He will hear us, but that we will learn how to truly hear Him. It’s hard to limit our distractions, but it allows you to hear His voice.

It amplifies a whisper that is so easily drowned out by noise. When you’re overwhelmed by distractions, it makes it really hard to hear a whisper. 

Believe it or not, you do have the ability to set those things aside and seek the Lord passionately and desperately not just when it’s easy, but when it’s really, really hard. Don’t allow those distractions around you to silence His Spirit within you. So, I am praying for you, the person reading this. Whether you find yourself on vacation as you read this or right in the middle of your everyday life, I believe that you will be able to identify your distractions this week and take one more step toward all that God has for you...it’s more than you could imagine!