Do you ever get the sense that God is trying to tell you something? Get your attention? Nudge you back on His path?

Three times this morning I came across thoughts and devotionals about focusing on what is important and not being distracted. And I decided I had better put these thoughts together before I lost my focus.

It seems there are two kinds of distractions…maybe more. But consider these two with me. The first is the distraction that takes you way off track. A person with attention deficit disorder (ADD) is often humorously characterized by always being distracted by a squirrel. Distracted to the point of…well…distraction. In the midst of a serious comment, they will blurt out, “Look, there’s a squirrel!”

There is another kind of distraction. This type comes from focusing on the less important while working on what really matters. It is busyness versus accomplishment. You see this played out in many offices. Someone stays busy working on things that don’t matter that much and fails to finish the main task.

Mentor and consultant Fred Smith covers this in his musings:

“To live a focused life, we must recognize those things that distract and pull us off course. Some people spend as much time on inconsequential details as they do on the vital parts. Therefore, they become extremely hard workers, but do not become great accomplishers because they don’t understand that every job has vital elements which need to take top priority.”

Paul Neuberger is a well-known speaker and head of C-Suite for Christ, a ministry made up of business executives who desire to impact the workplace for Christ. He describes the reality of distractions this way:

Life’s shiny objects are never-ending.

We’re pulled this way, then another.

Literally, thousands of distractions vie for our attention daily.

Sometimes it’s hard to stay focused on one task or engagement.

Are you guilty of chasing the shiny objects of life and ministry? What’s the remedy? The answer is training ourselves…disciplining ourselves…to focus. I once brought a commencement address to college students and used the word “focus” as an acrostic. I tried to use the analogy of focusing the lens of our cameras on what was important in the picture. Then I realized that 95 percent of the students had never focused a camera lens. Their smart phone camera did all the work. Hopefully, they weren’t too distracted by my illustration and could focus in on the points I was trying to make.

The Apostle Paul underscored the importance of eliminating distractions in order to focus on what is critical:

…one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:13-14 NASB

Eugene Peterson paraphrased Paul’s words this way:

I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back.

So, identify those things that easily distract you, and discipline yourself to focus on the critical, especially in our spiritual lives. Let’s see what we can accomplish today…without distractions.

God’s best,