Distracted

This morning I was waiting at an intersection to make a right turn. In the car to my left, waiting to make a left turn, was a young woman in a red sports car, having an animated conversation on her cell phone. At one point her car lurched forward, barely missing the gray Mazda in front of her. As the light changed to green for her to proceed, I noticed that across the intersection, preparing to make a right turn into the same lane as the young woman, was a school bus. Thinking to myself - no, I think I said it out loud, “This is not good,” I watched as the car and the bus moved forward toward the same space. 

Both the law and common sense dictate that the car should let the bus go first, but common sense had already left for the day when the woman decided to have her cell phone conversation - so I watched the red sports car cut off the bus. The bus driver slammed on her brakes, narrowly missing the car. I don’t know if the young woman in the red sports car knew what she had caused and what had been avoided, as she sped off for her day’s activities, cell phone in hand.

It seems that I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking to myself, or saying out loud, “This is not good” as I watch people heading straight into bad situations that they could have seen if only they weren’t so distracted by less important things:

Drivers not paying full attention to what is going on around them
Parents not paying full attention to what is going on in the lives of
their kids
Husbands not paying full attention to what is going on in their marriages
Kids not paying full attention to what is going on in class
Couples not paying full attention to what is going on in the relationship

Like the joke about ADD, “Ooh, look, a shiny thing,”  many of us are too easily distracted. Many of us have difficulty staying focused. We think we can multitask, but research studies consistently show that even those who are confident in their ability to multitask don’t do it as well as they think. And when it comes to the most important things in life - our relationships - we have convinced ourselves that we don’t need to give them our undivided attention. We are wrong.

I have found, as I’m sure you have, that offering unsolicited advice and admonitions about such things tend not to be well received. When I say “Be careful, danger ahead,”  the response is often, “Mind your own business,” which, on its face, is not an unreasonable response, as I certainly have enough things in my life to keep me busy.  However, the nature of the church, when it is done right and well, not only encourages me to look at your life and you to look at mine, but it is a nonnegotiable essential of a healthy spiritual life. In other words, I don’t have a choice - your business IS my business.

We are missing some of the most important things in our life because we are easily distracted by the less important things. We tend to reject the help of others who may be able to offer wisdom to us from their experiences, and who may have a better perspective than we do. We remove ourselves from communities and commitments that encourage transparency and accountability, and we reject those behaviors and exercises (commonly known as the spiritual disciplines) that help develop our ability to perceive more clearly. 

This morning, as I made my way back to church, I found a police officer parked in our lot, along with several other cars. There had been an accident in front of our church. Seems someone was, you guessed it, talking on their cell phone.