Focus

Three seconds is the amount of time it takes for social media’s algorithm to flag your viewing preferences. Eight seconds is how long a bull rider needs to stay on a massive wide animal to win. Thirty seconds is the length of an average television commercial costing an average of $115,000.

We live in a world of rapid influences; texts (continual appointment reminders), social media (saturated with ads), phone calls (robot calls, weather alerts, Amber alerts), internet (with annoying pop ups), emails (spam, unwanted political pleas for money), streaming movies, television … just to list a few. The majority of these are nonproductive activities. Our culture has manipulated us so that we must depend on the devises, apps, or media platforms to live in this fast-paced world.

Distractions – our enemy (satan) is the master of taking our focus away from the Lord. All those tools above for communication are not necessarily evil, it’s the use that can become detrimental to our relationship with the Lord. Continuous scrolling, watching videos, dialoging on a platform with someone you don’t even know, striving for more followers, and posting in hopes it will go viral are indicators that we have become addicted to a manufactured society system.

Every week I get a message from my iPhone telling me the amount of screentime I spent that week versus the week prior. I can’t figure out if they want me to spend more time on the phone or less. Regardless, I started thinking about how this relates to the time I spend with the Lord. If God sent a weekly report, what would it look like? Is the time this week more than the time last week? Or was there any time to report?

The dichotomy of living in this world, but not being consumed by the world is a continual battle. The challenge of staying in touch with the happenings in our society without becoming obsessed takes discipline. Our source for this discipline is the Lord. We need to ensure we spend equal or more time with the Lord than all the world inputs that bombard us 24 /7. We need to deliberately make time for the Lord.

Colossians 3:1-4:

Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.

The old (while timeless) hymn written by Helen H. Lemmel captures that when we focus on the Lord, all the earthly influences and distractions diminish.

Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus:

O soul are you weary and troubled?

No light in the darkness you see?

There’s light for a look at the Savior,

And life more abundant and free!

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,

Look full in His wonderful face,

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim

In the light of His glory and grace.

When we spend time focused on the Lord’s glory and grace, all the stresses of keeping up with the latest digital crazes lose their luster.

This week’s challenge: Spend as much time reading the Bible as you spend viewing digital media.