How prevalent are distractions throughout each day?
“Distractions from what?” you might ask. This is a crucial question and has different answers depending on one's understanding of the purpose, goals, or value for his usage of time. In considering a workplace setting, there is firstly a mission for why any organization exists. Because of that mission and strategic and tactical goals of the business, there are reasons for workers being present (whether as employees or volunteers) and expectations for the time they spend on the job. As a desk employee, when emails come through my inbox, I have the responsibility to decipher their weight and value for my attention. With some emails, I hit “Delete” because the message does not fit within the purposes or responsibilities of my job and, therefore, would be a waste of time and energy to look at. Such an email is considered a “distraction.” The ability to decipher between something’s value is vital to my time being used efficiently as I work. As with the email example, some messages are evident in their identity as a distraction. They appear as a scam or irrelevant sales promotion. Other emails, however, are more difficult to determine, as they come in different forms. Some emails are from people requesting that I do something for them. Some are from people who are directly involved with the purposes of the organization (i.e. coworkers or clients), and some emails are interruptions but are also in line with our organization’s mission. The Covey Management Grid from Steven Covey's book “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” gives four categories in which to divide tasks: “Important and Urgent,” “Important and Not Urgent,” “Unimportant and Urgent,” and “Unimportant and Not Urgent.” Focusing on what is “Important” is strategic and effective for achieving intended results; moreover, tasks within the “Unimportant” categories can be distractions that steal from the success or reality of goals coming true. In my personal life, I have come to the end of many days realizing that I had wasted a lot of time. The desire for a particular evening could have included beneficial endeavors, but instead, I allowed my intended-“brief” time online to progress into clicking from one website to another until it was time to go to bed. Maybe you don't deal with this, but it seems the opportunity, weight, and responsibility of time on Earth is often underestimated by humans. It can happen in various ways, but the fact that humans can waste time is vital to be on guard against! James 4:14 says this: “…you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.” As I get older, I’m realizing the reality of verses like this—that life on Earth is short and quick. However, within our brief moments, time is available to be used purposefully! Jesus was very intentional with his time. He lived with priorities while also discerning how to handle many interruptions that came about. He lived in light of eternal life and therefore made decisions based on long-lasting consequences, and He valued life as a short opportunity, knowing that His death would be coming soon. He did not wait to make intentional choices nor withhold intimacy with God or love for people. He knew His mandate, lived it, and was the forerunner example for our potential. In John 15:4, 15:10, 15:12-14, and 15:16 Jesus said this: “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me…If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love…This is My commandment, that you love on another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do what I command you…You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain….” I don't know about you, but I want to live a fruit-bearing life with fruit that remains. I want to live out God’s full potential for me--being in relationship with Him and choosing to love people according to His lead. What would it look like if each person alive undoubtedly knew his purpose and discerned through daily distractions that vie for his precious time? |