What are the distractions of our lives? I have two primaries in that I like stuff and I am curious. While ‘stuff’ and ‘knowing’ things are not essentially ungodly, immoral, corrupting, they are distracting from focusing upon the LORD. Or, at least, they can be.
Matthew 6:25-33 and Luke 12:13-48 are parallels of Jesus’s teachings about how we focus on things that do not bring us closer in relationship with the LORD. While Jesus is not excluding the importance of food, water, clothing or housing, He is making a strong statement about being fixed upon these:
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? …And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? …Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” 1
Jesus can certainly focus our view, cut through the fog of feelings and point to the Truth. What is most important, worthy of attention, thought, effort? Seems like He is saying to expend out mental energies on knowing God and not so much on the temporary.
The Luke passage includes the phrase,
“Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 2
Jesus goes on to give a parable about a man who had more than enough but was caught up in ‘more’:
“The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” 3
Before we condemn the man with plenty, we may want to pause and consider the ‘much’ we have especially if we live in the developed world of abundance. How much is enough or in my case, how much stuff or information or knowledge do I need to be ‘rich toward God’? If I have all I desire, is the most significant ‘all’ all about the LORD? Am I ‘seeking His kingdom’ above all else or am I distracted? Luke 12:48 concludes,
“Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.” 4
