As I began to sit down this week and prepare a sermon for Sunday morning services, I noticed that in my busy life that I have created, there are so many distractions that keep me from the things that are most important in my life. There were numerous times that I sat down to study for the sermon only to be distracted by something that was “more important” than what God would have me preach to the church on Sunday. The enemy would love for you and me to get distracted from studying our Bible, preparing the sermon, sidetracked from writing this article, or whatever plan that God has for you. We have so many distractions in our life that keep us from the things that we should cherish most, our families and most importantly our relationship with Christ Jesus.

The very definition of distraction is a thing that prevents someone from giving full attention to something else or an extreme agitation of the mind or emotions. Then if you go a step farther and GOOGLE: What causes distractions? It says the lack of ability to pay attention; lack of interest in the object of attention. We always seem to have an excuse or a distraction that keep us from God’s Word. I wander if we were to be honest with ourselves, how much of our problem is a lack of paying attention and how much of it is a lack of interest. Unfortunately, we can spend hours on end playing with our phones or our facebook apps and many other “nonimportant things” with no problem at all. Like it or not, anything that we put before God is something that we show more interest in like our (hobbies, sports, TV, and countless other things), but we always have time or make time for everything else in life.

Distractions are all around us and at first glance they don’t seem too bad, but distractions can be very dangerous or even deadly. Recent changes to our motor vehicle laws and the state’s distracted driving laws tell us that it’s a very big problem. Distracted driving is the cause of 3,200 deaths each year and approximately 431,000 injuries. Studies prove that distracted drivers with mobile phones will score worse on all the following driving tests like reaction times, speed control, and response to warnings more so than someone with an 0.08 blood alcohol level. Recent studies also show a rise in distracted pedestrians walking into oncoming traffic which resulted in 6,227 deaths in 2018. Another study showed that only 1 of 4 distracted pedestrians would even notice a clown on a unicycle coming toward them on a sidewalk or pick them out from a regular pedestrian because they were distracted in some way. We don’t even pay attentions to our surroundings, we just walk around with our phone in our face like we are a bunch of zombies. Distractions come at us every single day of our life, a vast majority of them look to be simple and harmless, but a simple distraction of 5 seconds at a rate of 55 mph in a vehicle is equivalent to driving the length of a football field with your eyes closed. Not just dangerous……it could be DEADLY!!

Not only do we struggle with distractions today, but there are many cases of distractions in the Bible that got the best of “some of the best.” King David and Sampson were distracted with women, Martha was too distracted with preparing to serve that she forgot to worship what was most important, the spies were too distracted by the giants, and the Prodigal Son was too distracted by the noise of the world that he forgot how good he had it at the father’s house. I think we are so distracted by so many things in life that we never get to enjoy all of God’s blessings. Sometimes we are so distracted we don’t even take the time to admire a simple sunrise or sunset.

I heard a preacher’s sermon this week talk of the how the Europeans tortured people in the middle ages. Anyone that committed a sin that was worthy of death would experience a pain that we couldn’t even begin to imagine. They would take a horse with a rope and tie to each of the limbs of the accused. Then, the horses would pull with all their force in opposite directions until they would finally close their eyes in death. This was a horrible death and it was called ”Death by Distraction.” This is what is going on with our society today “Death by Distraction.” We are pulled in so many directions and distracted on every hand until the point of the death with our society and families as we know them.

Don’t get so distracted by the noise of the world that we don’t cherish the moments with God and our precious moments with our families. Dr. Martin Luther King said, “You may not be able to keep birds from flying around your head, but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair.” This week don’t get distracted by distractions. Cherish the moments with your family. Cherish what God has given you and the people that God has surrounded you with. This life is but a vapor and then we are gone. None of us have the promise of tomorrow. Don’t let your cause of Spiritual death read “Death by Distraction.” God Bless!!!!

(The Solutions Column is provided by Pastor Brandon Young of Harmony Free Will Baptist Church, Hampton, and his associate, David Odom.)