Look around you, and you will see so much noise.
So many attempts at your attention, so many attempts on the life that you are supposed to be living. If you give in to the noise, you will lose the way, you will find yourself 5,000 miles from your intended destination.
Distraction drives the world in which we live. Billions of dollars are poured into getting us to spend just one or two more seconds on a platform so that we can see advertisements that influence us to buy things, ideas, and know about things that we don’t need to know about.
The modern world is a world fraught with this subtle path to Hell. A dystopia that wants to suck you dry as if you were in a pod in the Matrix.
If you are not careful, you will give over your energy, your time, everything, to the distractions - instead of going deeper and becoming someone who creates and has purpose - someone who seeks Truth.
If we are distracted, how can we converse with God? How can we hear him if we have the distractions of modernity blaring in our ears and blinding us with the lightshow around every corner?
The stonemasons of the Cathedrals of the world didn’t take social media breaks, the artists of old were so enthralled with that which they were trying to put out into the Universe that the days would pass them by without notice.
Yet we pull out our phones to scroll mindlessly right in the middle of the focused work that we are supposed to be doing for the benefit of the human race.
Many of us spend over a day a week on the little black mirror in our pockets - and we have the arrogance to say we are not slaves?
We are wasting our lives away on literal nothingness.
We live in the most distracted society in history.
The decadence in the downfall of Rome is of no comparison.
Social media notifications.
Text messages.
Emails about nothing.
The news media.
The latest and greatest.
Celebrities.
Modern music.
The sports game.
Political charades.
Fame.
All this does is distract us from the ultimate purpose and realization of who we are supposed to be and our purpose in this life.
Most people would rather be comfortable than live a life seeking the Truth, it is easier to live a comfortable lie. It is easier to sleep while we could be doing the things that we must do in accordance with our Creator.
This is evident in the inability of the human being to endure any sort of suffering - paving the way for “ice baths” and “cold showers” to become a pervasive meme in our culture. We video ourselves jumping into a cold shower so that we can show the world “how to suffer”. But that is no suffering at all.
We would rather cease the momentary pain of existence than orient towards a life everlasting.
We are unable to say “no” to watching pornography or eating a meal that we know will make us suffer tomorrow for the short term dopamine hit that we get in giving in to these activities.
Each and every distraction that pulls us away from the purpose of this life is from the enemy.
We are a distracted people, one completely at peace with never reaching Heaven because our gain today is so much more “important” to us than salvation. The completely false video game currency we aim to acquire is more important to 95% of people than the real currency that is the House of God.
The fact is that we are working actively against our own souls - we are succumbing to that of the flesh, when it is the soul that should take priority, for that is where Truth lives. And, when we overcome the fleshly desires, we have the desires of the mind to overcome. For in our mind we can fall short again and again. In the physical world we may not outwardly act on the internal ideas, but we entertain ideas again and again in the mind.
So, in our distracted state, we are constantly failing, we are constantly coming up short, when we could be acting in a way that would allow us to see clearer.
There is more potential in each and every soul than we will ever know, for the soul is of God, and He has far more in store for us than we could imagine for ourselves.
The reason that distraction is a sin is that it takes us away from that which we should always be striving for - communion with God Himself. If we are so easily distracted from that which is the purpose of our life, we are influenceable in all ways that do not suit our actual best interests.
So - turn it off. Focus. Quiet your mind. Listen. Seek Discipline. Pray.
Stop being distracted, for it will tear away that which is meant for you.
As always, God bless, and until next time.
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