There is now no doubt that we are living in a DIGITAL AGE that has turned the world into an endless stream of screens loaded with imagery and messages cascading down from a distant and unknown cloud in the sky. The platforms are multiplying like rabbits. You know about Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, What’sApp, Snapchat, Reddit, and Pinterest. But watch out for Twitch, Discord, Clubhouse, Caffeine and Houseparty. And that will not be the end. They will never stop coming and neither will the cacophony of noise raining down from satellites whistling through the stars.
This dizzying digital downpour emanating from our pocket creates a challenge of epic proportions for Christians living in 2022. That’s why I am including this message on DISTRACTION in our year-end FAITH INVENTORY on the way to 2022.
Yes, it has ALWAYS been difficult for Christians to keep Christ front and center. Believers have had to fight off competition for their mind and heart for over 2,000 years.
The messages and delivery system today are clearly new and different from anything the world has ever seen, but the spiritual threat has NOT changed as we refresh and reload from screen to screen to screen.
“We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.” Hebrews 2:1
Ok, so that’s the problem. What about the solution for Christians living in the 21st Century?
It starts and stops with this piercing question: Is my consumption of the world’s messages building my connection with Jesus or breaking it down?
Today’s messages aren’t passive rain coming down on us. They are strategically constructed to elicit a RESPONSE. To secure our like. To hijack our heart. To engage our latent lust.
What’s the antidote? Shut off the broadband conveyer belt? Sell the smartphone? Live off the grid? Not necessarily.
The only antidote that carries a guarantee is breaking what I call the EYE to MIND to HEART cycle. We do that by having ONE message dominate and diminish ALL others:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (Matthew 22:37).
Yes, we break the EYE to MIND to HEART cycle by giving Christ our unencumbered attention. Not a casual tune-in here and there in between our online forays.
“For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” Colossians 3:3
I ask God to push me to do whatever it takes to beat back the distractions of this life so I can focus on HIM. To help me fight off the world’s destructive messages and focus, instead, on his direction.
WHAT ABOUT YOU?
Are you distracted more than you should be? Have you taken that to God? What is it in your life right now that is distracting you from activating your faith and growing closer to God?
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Matthew 22:37
“I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.” Psalm 119:15
