Easily Distracted

“There’s a fortune to be made off your distraction.” 

This is the opening statement of an article that appeared in The Mission, a business and tech podcast site, which addressed the reality of distractions in our modern lives. In the article, Anthony Moore explains how countless multi-billion-dollar industries compete for our attention because we (essentially) allow them to distract us. He similarly describes how most people don’t “reinvest their free time,” and primarily take their free time for granted as they are preoccupied with unimportant things. Finally, Moore concludes by stating, “If you want to eliminate distractions and cultivate a lifestyle that enables daily hyper-focus, you must do what others are unwilling to do. You must unapologetically categorize everything into two categories: important, and unimportant.” 

I believe he is on to something here. 

We are so easily distracted by technology (phones and social media), sports, T.V., and sometimes even our own families that we fail to take a breath and ask ourselves, “what is our ultimate priority in life?” What occupies our attention and monopolizes our time? What have we placed at the center of our heart and devoted the most time to? Unfortunately, for many, the answer to those questions is an idol of our own making. 

Redefining Idolatry

So what exactly is an idol or idolatry? Webster’s dictionary defines it as the worship of a physical object as a god, or an immoderate attachment or devotion to something. But Looking at scripture we find a more poignant definition in Exodus 20:3-5, which reads, “You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God.” 

This seems clear to most, but there are still some who might assume that they are not guilty of idolatry since they do not worship wooden or gold idols as the pagans did in biblical times. 

So let’s define, in modern terms, what an idol truly is. 

An idol is anything we place above God. Many of the objects we tend to label as simply distractions in our lives are in fact our own personal idols. We give these objects our time, money, and attention, and ultimately place them over God, who is jealous for our attention and worship.

Fix Your Eyes on Him

Despite the world’s many captivating attractions and objects of idolatry, we must focus on what is important in this life, Jesus Christ. As it says in Hebrews 12:2, “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

We must set our eyes on the One who sacrificed His life for us. The One who took our place on that cruel cross, along with our shame and our curse. 

This method of fixing our eyes on our Creator was wonderfully illustrated by the testimony of Charles H. Spurgeon, the “Prince of Preachers.” Spurgeon explains that the day he was saved he wandered into a small Methodist chapel and heard a simple preacher teaching from Isaiah 45:22, which reads, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.” He recounted how the preacher suddenly turned his attention to his younger self and cried out, “Young man, look to Jesus Christ. Look! Look! Look! You have nothing to do but to look and live.” Ever since hearing those words, Spurgeon has never taken his eyes off our Lord.

May God break the chains of idolatry in our lives - May we take these words spoken by that simple Methodist preacher, the words that resonated so powerfully in the Prince of Preachers, and the words that are ultimately founded on solid biblical truth so that we may “look to Jesus Christ. Look! Look! Look! …and live!”