Faith Venture

There is a debate raging in Web circles that has spilled over into the Wall Street Journal op-ed pages about whether the Web is making us dumber or smarter. The smarter argument is that we have access to so much more information for learning than ever before. That’s true. It’s been a big help to me in my profession and for personal learning. The dumber argument is that there is so much information coming at us so quickly that we cannot focus–we’re becoming an ADD culture. That’s also true. I have over 20 tabs open on my browser (usually Firefox, but sometimes I try Chrome or Safari–see, I even have trouble focusing on one browser), not to mention email, a Twitter client called Seesmic, and many other programs for writing or thinking.

But that really is just the surface. I was thinking of the relation between my last two posts–distraction and who’s the greatest. Sometimes we’re distracted by focusing on the wrong goals. The goal of Peter, James, John and the rest should not have been who is number 2 to Jesus. It should have been on emulating Jesus’ life in relation to God. The focus and attention should have been on God. Power and status were a distraction.

What other distractions can you think of in the Bible? Probably number one in Jesus’ book was the focus on rules rather than people. Legal relationships instead of relationships with God and the people you live with or meet. The Pharisees (legalists, rule followers, list keepers) constantly tried to trip up Jesus with questions of legality. Jesus usually turned the question around into a discussion of the right relationship with God and with people. What about divorce? Well Moses said this because your hearts are hard, but God says it’s all about relationship. What about paying taxes? Well give to Rome what it’s owed, but more importantly, give to God what God is owed–don’t be distracted by economy but focus on God.

Focusing on the important and avoiding (or dealing with) distraction are your life’s work. They are also a minute-by-minute challenge. What has your attention this week? Where will you focus each minute? Those answers will determine your life’s direction.

This entry was posted on June 13, 2010 at 7:48 am and is filed under Christianity, Living. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.