Distracted By the Game

Little children, guard yourselves against idols.”  1 John 5:21

I never know what I am going to write about until I have time in prayer, and study my Bible.  Sometimes my topic emerges from my Study while other times God just drops a word or image into my mind.  This morning’s topic dropped out of nowhere like a sudden rainstorm that drenches on a flip-flop kind of day.  There is this beautiful passage of Scripture tucked at the end of 1 John that is describing how complete our lives are when we are in Christ.  It writes an eternal screenplay of the position we have in Him, and the infinite promises that are ours to claim.  And then suddenly, like an unwelcome guest at a perfect party, this little verse abruptly ends the Book of 1 John.  In considering this warning, I really believe that it is cautioning us against the very thing that can distract us from living out what is already ours as believers.

I remember when my son Michael was about 5 years old and we were sitting next to each other on the couch.  We were the only one’s home, and he had just gotten a Game Boy.  All he wanted to do was play that game, exhausting his thumbs and numbing his mind as most children that age.  As we sat there I got choked on something that went down my throat wrong and I couldn’t breathe.  I began making those horrible noises where it is obvious little breath is getting through.  I began to panic, and Michael continued playing the game.  Eventually I was able to take in small breaths and gain the composure I had so lost.  I still am so amused when I remember his statement to me as I was trying to recover.  He never looked up from his game, and with his thumbs madly pressing the buttons and said, ‘Mom, are you okay?’  We still laugh about that as a family.  He was so engrossed and distracted by the game that he almost missed out on what was going on around him.

Aren’t we just like that as we surround ourselves with the distractions of the world?  Aren’t we the little children being warned about allowing idols to control our attention?  We also exhaust our thumbs turning the pages of catalogs, and purchasing things we really don’t need.  We spend hours upon hours numbing on minds on social media, and obsessing on the lives of others.  We eat when we are not hungry, and we drink when we are dissatisfied.  We keep our attention solely focused on the news, and the national division in which we live.  Our children and grandchildren can become idols, and even our guilt can become an idol.   We barely lift our eyes up from our own interests, missing the needs of those around us.  We must guard ourselves against the idols we build for ourselves, otherwise we will miss out on the fullness on earth that we can have in Christ.  The only satisfaction we can find on earth lives in Heaven.  When we seek God with a spiritual hunger Heaven invades earth, and any lack we have God will provide.  Spiritual hunger is that craving that nothing on earth has the power to satisfy.  It is a craving for Who instead of what.  It is a desire to reconnect with God Himself instead of what He can do for us.  When we seek Him with the same passion we serve our self-made idols, we come in for the blessing of fullness.

‘But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.’ Matthew 6:33.