Fatal Distraction

Fatal Distraction

by Grant Gaines

Ask any mountain climber what is the secret to reaching the summit of a mountain, and they will all tell you the same thing. You have to keep your hope. If you lose your hope, you lose the battle against the mountain. And the number one way to keep your hope of reaching the peak as a mountain climber is to look at the summit rather than down at your feet.

Sure, you need to know where you’re going to put your foot, but you can’t lose track of the ultimate goal. In fact, studies have shown that a climber’s attitude is directly tied to the peak’s visibility. As long as the climbers have an unobstructed view of the mountain peak, they tend to be in good spirits. However, when clouds begin to interfere with the climber’s ability to see the top of the mountain, their attitudes begin to sour.

What the researchers discovered from this study was a principle we can all apply to our lives – mountain peak or not. When we take our eyes off the ultimate prize – God – we lose our hope. That is why we are encouraged throughout God’s Word to keep our focus on Him rather than on our circumstances.  For example, 1 Chronicles 16:11 (NIV) prompts us to, “Look to the LORD and His strength; seek His face always.” We are told once again in Hebrews 12:2 (NIV) to, “…fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith…”

With commands as obvious as these, why do we so often find ourselves not focusing our attention on God? Distractions. And these distractions can come in various forms. Sometimes the distractions disguise themselves as mega-trials that shake the very foundation of our faith, causing us, in a moment of weakness, to take our eyes off of God.

But more often than not, the “cloud that blocks our view of the summit” is normalcy of our daily schedule. Monday through Friday, 8 AM-5 PM. The repetition in our schedules begins to dull our awareness of the nearness of God…and Satan.

Often we think of Satan as stealing our focus away from God by using awful and horrific circumstances, which he frequently does. But Satan is just as happy leaving you alone to enjoy a perfectly comfortable life in hopes that you will begin to rely more and more on yourself and less and less on God. He accomplishes his goal of “clouding” your vision of God using both tactics.

Of course, as believers in Jesus Christ, “the Spirit who lives in [us] is greater than the spirit [Satan] who lives in the world” (1 John 4:4, NLT), so we don’t have to fall for Satan’s traps and become sidetracked from our relationship with God. Instead, we are commanded to, “Be very careful…how [we] live–not as unwise but as wise…” (Ephesians 5:15, NIV), to be “Be self-controlled and alert…” (1 Peter 5:8, NIV), and to, “…be clear minded and self-controlled so that [we] can pray,” (1 Peter 4:7, NIV). Or in other words, we are instructed to live with an awareness of our “spiritual temperature” towards the Lord.

If we don’t live with this awareness, we begin to become dangerously similar to the Pharisees of Jesus’s time. The Pharisees were the religious know-it-alls of the first century. By the age of 10, Jewish boys training to be a Pharisee would have the entire Torah memorized (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). That means they averaged memorizing 1,463 verses a year, or four verses per day[1]! If that’s not impressive enough, by the age of 14 they would have the entire Jewish Scripture memorized (the 39 books that make up our Old Testament)! So I think it’s safe to say they knew a thing or two about the Scriptures.

However, the Pharisees didn’t use this incredible knowledge of the Scriptures to deepen their affections for God. Instead, they became so accustom to the Scriptures that they didn’t even realize that the very Scripture they had memorized proved that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah. As a result, they settled for man-made rules and regulations rather than inheriting the abundance of life Jesus offered them (John 10:10). Jesus criticized the Pharisees for this spiritual blindness in John 5:39-40 (NIV) by saying, “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me to have life.”

Just like a mountain climber with an obstructed view of the peak, the Pharisees lost sight of their ultimate goal of pleasing God. Do you ever feel like the Pharisees? You’ve become so acquainted with your Bible, so familiar with your pattern of prayer, or so comfortable with your Sunday schedule that you become oblivious to what God is trying to do in your life?

If that’s the case, refocus your attention on “The Summit” by following God’s command in Psalms 46:10 (NIV) in which He calls us to, “Be still, and know that I am God…”

Take the time to count your blessings. Take the time to worship. Above all, take the time to look at God, The Summit of our spiritual mountain. Because when we do, we will, “…renew [our] strength. [We] will soar on wings like eagles; [we] will run and not grow weary, [we] will walk and not be faint” (Isaiah 40:31, NIV).

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©Grant Gaines 2013