He preached on the Good Samaritan, but when he began analyzing the text he used the word "lawyer." He pronounced it lo-yer with a short o sound as in Pa. I've always pronouned the word like loy-yer, as in joy-er.
My mind left the Bible teaching and raced off out of the church. I was distracted.
Years back, John and I attended a wonderful church in San Diego. I remember one particular Sunday I was engrossed in worship, eyes closed, hands up. Beautiful.
My beloved chose that moment to lean over to me and whisper, "Look at the heed (head) on that one." He did this in a Scottish accent like Mike Meyers in the movie "I Married an Axe Murderer."
My eyes popped open, I glanced at John and followed his eyes to someone walking down an aisle. His head was, well, um...big. Really big.
Distraction.
I informed John after that particular Sunday that I'd been in the throne room worshipping when he whispered. It's been a joke ever since. I have had occasion to see something or think something in church and lean over to John and whisper, interrupting his worship, too. When this happens he'll look at me with a mixture of annoyance of love (mostly annoyance) and say "Look at the heed on that one."
Distractions are so easily a part of church, aren't they? I think the enemy loves to tempt us to stray away from a moment with God, be it in listening to the Word being preached or worshipping. I love to be in worship and hang out with God. Sometimes that means I don't hear a thing the preacher says because I am having a conversation with God. Sometimes that means taking notes on what the preacher says and soaking it in. And sometimes that means dancing with my King. Eyes closed, hands up.
But it never means analyzing the diameter of someone's cranium and it doesn't mean leaving because I don't agree with a pronunciation.
I have to make a choice to be engaged with God, even in church. How bout you? How do you handle distractions in church?
5 comments:
Right you are, Robbie. Like you, I have to choose -- and choose again -- to stay engaged during church. I'm sure Satan loves it when we allow the distractions to win out. They're going to come, for sure, but it's what we do with them that makes the difference.
By the way, I saw law(yer) like paw, too :)
I am easily distracted and have not found a way to overcome this yet. Praying with my eyes closed is not for piety, it is for concentration. At least with all the screens, I tend to look from the speaker back and forth to one of them, instead of around the congregation.
Today at a faculty meeting, the person next to me was very distracted by someone saying "less" instead of "fewer".
Hi Robbie -
Another good post to examine ourselves.
Distraction happen everywhere ... listening to a friend, at a work meetings, listening to the news, etc.
What helps me is to take notes, just memory joggers like I may want to write about this, and this can help me to concentrate.
Susan
Ha ha. This reminds me of college. We went to church umm...let me count...6 times a week. Maybe we could afford some distraction.
Anyway, my room-mate would say "Look at that guy over there. He's got a pin-head. That bugs me."
Another time I said, "Look at that girl's lips, they're like duck lips." And my room-mate would say, "That bugs me."
So we weren't only distracted, we were critical. It was pretty fun though. But wrong. It was wrong. I know that now.
Great post, Robbie. I completely understand. I get distracted everywhere I go. Maybe it is a writer's curse, but I seem to get hit with book or article ideas at the most inopportune times, then I can't focus on the sermon, the conversation I'm having with my husband, the road, etc. Of course, by the time I sit down to write I am distracted by other things, so these ideas never make it onto the paper...
Post a Comment