Part 3 - Read the Word
If you had the opportunity to listen to Jesus, what would you do? That’s not as clear-cut an answer as many of us would think. For example Peter—when given the opportunity to see Jesus in transfiguration and listen to God from Heaven—instantly distracted himself by asking questions (Mark 9:6). Martha of Bethany likewise had the opportunity not just to hear from Jesus, but to have him in her house, and yet she distracted herself with much serving (Luke 10:40).
We do have the opportunity to listen to Jesus every Sunday, indeed
every day, but many of us—nay all—distract ourselves in any number of ways. In order
to be a better listener we need to, like Martha’s sister Mary, choose the good
portion of listening to the Lord (Luke 10:41-42).
This is a cognizant decision we must make. I recently
attended a conference where Richard Blackaby spoke, amid other points he warned
ministers not to be so busy that they don’t get anything done. He mentioned a
man who worked for him who was always running around in a tizzy. After some
time Blackaby took stock of what the busy man actually did, and there was not a
quantifiable level of work to justify keeping him as an employee. Blackaby sort-of-joked,
but also very seriously quipped, that he could not afford to employ someone who
kept so busy.
Many of us run into church this way, consumed with getting children
and ourselves just perfect on the outside, making plans for lunch, making plans
for dinner, trying to apply the sermon even before its preached, interacting
with the nursery via text, updating social media with profound pastoral quotes, and just plain letting our minds wander.
There are two kinds of distraction in this world: Those you can
correct and those you can’t.
If you are constantly distracted by the kid who sits in front
of you, then do yourself a favor and correct that distraction by sitting in front of him. Last I checked, the
front row is almost always open. Do your phone notifications break your concentration?
Turn it off or leave it in the car. Is it too cold in the auditorium? Bring a
jacket or talk to your friendly maintenance staff. That reminds me, maybe the
distraction can be fixed, but not under your power. If it’s distracting you, it’s
distracting others. Is the woman doing interpretive dance and playing her tambourine
distracting from you concentrating on the Word of God? You need to talk to her,
then the church leaders, and then maybe you need to find another church if the
preaching of the Word is not central. Are cell phones always going off or
people always coming in and out? Ask church leaders to address it from the
pulpit: very few people in church are purposefully trying to steal your
attention.
But, sometimes there are distractions you can’t fix. We
recently had an electrical ground fail which induced a nasty feedback loop into
our projector. During the entire time the projector was on it slowly scrolled a
yellow line across the presentation. It’s fixed now, but over the months that
it was present was the congregation excused from being attentive to the Word of
God because they could not take that distraction captive? No, this is why Paul
said not to take every distraction captive, but every thought!
Determine to remove as many distractions as you feasibly can, both
for your sake and for the sake of your church. But also determine to be so
attentive to God’s Word that even if distractions arise, they will not cause
you to miss the good portion.
Identify that all distractions are transient but the things of
God are eternal and you will focus on what is honorable, just, pure, lovely,
commendable, excellent, and praiseworthy!Part 5 - Take Notes
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