Easily Distracted

I listened to a sermon by Tim Keller recently called Adoration: Hallowed Be Thy Name. It was about the primacy and importance of praise in prayer. If one does not adore God, and seek to hallow (or set aside as holy) the name of God, then all other functions of prayer and life will be distorted because they will be experienced from an improper vantage point. In other words, the person who adores God will pray rightly for their daily bread and other petitions. They will see forgiveness in the light of Christ, and so on...

Upon hearing the sermon I decided that I wanted more of this for myself. I wanted to become the type of person who adores God and hallows the name of God in word, deed, and life. And so I woke up keen on spending time simply praising God. It was fewer than 1 minute after beginning that my mind began wandering to other things. I couldn't even spend 1 minute of focused time adoring the creator of all things. I was easily distracted.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who is so easily distracted. The world in which we live trains us to be this way. We are rarely ever invited or encouraged to be still, or just do one thing. Our schedules are such that as we are doing something we are also thinking of what's next. Thus we are never fully in the moment. We are as those who are always between doors, but never fully in one room.

There is a story in The Silver Chair, by C.S. Lewis, where the children, who are on an Aslan endorsed mission, get easily put out of their way. They are journeying to find a missing prince, and their journey is tough, but manageable. They see the difficulties for what they are, and handle them as they come. Suddenly a queen comes up and tells them about a town with hot baths, beds, and great meals. Going there would've taken them off the path Aslan set them on, and they knew it. But the thought of all that comfort stayed with them, and distracted them.

After that talk with the Lady things got worse in two different ways. In the first place the country was much harder. The road led through endless, narrow valleys down which a cruel north wind was always blowing in their faces. There was nothing that could be used for firewood, and there were no nice little hollows to camp in, as there had been on the moor. And the ground was all stony, and made your feet sore by day and every bit of you sore by night.

In the second place, whatever the Lady had intended by telling them about Harfang, the actual effect on the children was a bad one. They could think about nothing but beds and baths and hot meals and how lovely it would be to get indoors. They never talked about Aslan, or even about the lost prince, now. And Jill gave up her habit of repeating the signs over to herself every night and morning. She said to herself, at first, that she was too tired, but she soon forgot all about it. And though you might have expected that the idea of having a good time at Harfang would have made them more cheerful, it really made them more sorry for themselves and more grumpy and snappy with each other and with Puddleglum. 

It's the same way with our lives and the distractions that come. The chief end of a person, as the reformed catechism says, is "to glorify God and to enjoy him forever." This is what brings the greatest life, and this is what must constantly remain our focus. The things that arise peripherally only draw our attention away from that goal and, like the children in the story, ruin our perception of the life we currently have and the mission we have been given.   

This is why I am endeavoring to adore God more and more. Since I am so easily distracted I must persevere with grace until God is the most important thing to me naturally. So important that any other thing will pale in comparison. It is then, I believe, that I will experience the world as I am meant to, and I will see life and creation in all their beauty, because then I will see them through God.