Easily Distracted

I hate being sick. I hate staying home because I don't have cable TV, and daytime TV that you get for free is just, well, awful. But most of all, I hate being sick because I hate feeling less than 100 percent, I hate not being productive, I hate being cooped up at home.

And I get easily distracted on top of that. In creating this new blog, I made some tea to help fight this wicked cold I have, and set the kitchen timer to remind me when the allotted 5 minutes for the tea bag to steep was done. The timer went off, and I heard it, and I kept working on the back-end stuff for this blog (who gets to see it, comment on it, its layout, yada, yada, yada ...) I think the tea brewed for, like, 15 minutes or something. Worse yet, it got lukewarm.

So what am I getting at?

This time of year we call the Christmas season, I think a lot of us get easily distracted from what we really need to be paying attention to, from what Christmas really means. We get distracted, for sure, by the materialism, of buying stuff so that family and friends (so they'll love us more, or so the ads say). For some of us, we get distracted by some people's desire to "take Christ out of Christmas." A worthy effort, I would say, but also distracting from really telling people what the season is about, because we get so wrapped up in the argument that we forget to explain why we believe what we believe in love and grace.

So I came across this video of Shane and Shane performing the song "Received." And as so often happens, when I need to be shaken up and pulled back into reality (but not really thinking I need to be), this particular song struck me to the core in the last couple days.



The lyrics:

Received
by Shane Barnard

You can only go so far, until the bottom falls out
All my singing, smiling, pleasure finds me, I'm all right
Pretty melody, dedicated to God
To be called by one Almighty God and take it for granted

Heard a rumor I guess, but I wanna know who told me so
Told me serving You replaced me knowing You

Can I be received?
Unclean oh Lord am I
Find me in my shame
You are all I need
Please don't pass me by
I call upon Your name

You whispered to Your child today
But I haven't got a minute to listen
Your child is busy with the work of God and taking Him for granted

Got a lot to do today, kingdom work's the game I play
Lord my serving You replaced me knowing You

So the thing is, I get so easily distracted by doing stuff, that I don't sit down as I should and know God. The last two lines of the second verse, "Got a lot to do today, kingdom work's the game I play / Lord my serving You replaced me knowing You."

Don't misunderstand, we who follow Jesus are to be about the the business of our Father in heaven. But not at the expense of spending the time of knowing Him through study AND application of Biblical principles, and through prayer.

Back to the context of Christmas, I think theologian J.I. Packer said it best:

"The Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity — hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory — because at the Father's will Jesus Christ became poor and was born in a stable so that thirty years later he might hang on a cross."
J. I. Packer, "Knowing God" (InterVarsity Press, 1993), p. 63

In the Bible, it is remembering this, not just at Christmas time, but daily:

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."
John 3:16-17 (New International Version)

Anyway, as I get back to my now iced tea (*smile*) I pray for a Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones, one that focuses on why we celebrate, why we give, why we love ... and, though challenging, a successful 2009.