I’ve just discovered the “distraction free” writing mode. With one click I can remove everything on the page except for the words I am typing. It’s just me and the blank page. Nothing else. It makes me uncomfortable.
The tools are only a click away, but their absence from my view exposes an insecurity. I rely heavily on the tools provided to help me accomplish my goal, and the idea of removing them from view is to allow total focus. No distractions. But I’ve become very comfortable with the distractions.
I know that this is a better format to compose my thoughts into the relevant content I desire, but it will take time to acclimate. It will be tempting to go back to what is most comfortable. If I do, I will miss the better way.
Have you become comfortable with distractions?
“Therefore then, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witness, let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us, looking away from all that will distract to Jesus…” Hebrews 12:1-2
It’s easy to see how sin is a distraction, and we must be quick to deal with those sins that want to cling to us. But many of the distractions that take our focus off Jesus aren’t sinful things. We can get so busy with our families, our work, our activities, that Jesus gets very little attention, much less devoted focus. We miss the better way.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could just click and all the distractions of life would be hidden! However, it takes discipline and effort to keep focused on Jesus in our busy world. It takes commitment and planning to ensure that we have time alone with Him. When we protect that time, we can be alone with Jesus. Nothing else. It can make us uncomfortable.
God uses the people and circumstances in our lives as a way to work out His plans in and for us. However, often we become so dependent on these people and circumstances that, if we are not careful, they become our security . When He calls us away from those things it is for the purpose of focusing on Him, making Him the center of our lives.
Push through whatever discomfort arises when you sit still before Him. Talk, and more importantly, listen. Distractions pale in their attraction or demands when He is the center of our lives.
Our Passionate Purpose 
This is so very true. I’m constantly finding myself having to refocus on Christ. The distractions of this world are so many and so LOUD! It’s easy to forget my focus until I find myself stumbling or in crisis. Yet it does seem hard to cut out these distractions.
Thank you for sharing! I like that the writer of Hebrews uses the words “looking away”. God knows we will notice the distractions – it’s impossible NOT to! And there’s no way to get rid of them all. But we get to choose to look away, and every time we make this choice, it gets easier to make it the next time.
Excellent post! It is so easy to get distracted by things that really just do not matter compared to the live of Christ!
Amen!