DISTRACTION

Screwtape, a senior devil trains his apprentice, Wormwood, in the art of demonic manipulation.  In C. S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters, Screwtape recounts the time when his patient – the man he is assigned to tempt – was moments away from a colossal spiritual breakthrough.  Seeing twenty years of demonic work beginning to totter, the senior demon suggested to the man that it was time for lunch.  Within moments, the patient was halfway across the street in search of the nearest pub, and the threat of a real spiritual breakthrough had passed.

One of the Devil’s greatest tools is “distraction.”  The Devil gets just as much satisfaction from luring us into meaningless distraction as he does from our disobedience to God.  Those minor distractions – constant tweeting, nonstop text messages, ongoing calendar reminders, unending anxiety-laced news – take us away from the stillness needed to seek God.

God’s Word is clear about living a balanced life:  let your life flow from a heart centered in God’s peace.  Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, (Col. 3:15).   Does the peace of Christ rule in your heart?  Jesus said in John 14:1, 27, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust in me … I leave you peace; my peace I give you.  I do not give it to you as the world does.  So don’t let your hearts be troubled or afraid.”

There is nothing more countercultural than living a deliberate life infused with margin.  Choose to be deliberate, not distracted, and let your life flow from a heart centered in the peace of Christ.