If you are reading this, you have been given a great opportunity in life. God has given us a very good life. Yet we still complain every day about one thing or another that we do not have.
Think about it.
My assumptions about you: You have some kind of device (phone, computer or tablet) that you can use to read this. That probably means you probably have some way to use electricity to power your device. I can guess that you also have enough money that you can purchase these things, or you’ve been blessed by someone and been given a nice gift. I’ll continue and say that you probably have some sort of job or financial support. You might be sitting down in a comfy chair, you might be drinking your coffee or you might be eating your lunch. Either you’re sitting inside, away from the elements outside, nice and cozy because it’s cold or it’s a nice enough day that you can sit outside and enjoy the warmth of the sun. You don’t have to worry about a lot in this country some but not a lot. You can enjoy all of the nice luxuries available to you without the fear of them being taken from you.
The point I’m trying to make is this: You are not suffering and neither am I.
I have a very good life. God has given me the ability to have very little pain and suffering and hardships in this world compared to many other people.
But, I find myself wanting more and becoming disappointed when I don’t get it; even worse I complain when one of my many luxuries in this world gets taken away from me.
Storytime…
I dropped my iPhone in some water last month. It was destroyed and it took about a week before I could get my phone replaced.
During the first couple of days, I was a mess; I was lost. I almost felt naked without my phone. How was I supposed to check Facebook, Twitter, scores and play my games… I mean… call my wife and do other phone-related things?
It was starting to look like it was going to be a very long week before I got my new phone. But as the days went on, I noticed the withdrawals of not having a phone began to lessen and I noticed that I had so much more free time.
Understand this, I’m not always on my phone. I have made it a point recently to not be on my phone while my kids are awake and when its cuddle time with the wifey. They deserve all of my attention when I’m around. But I do end up spending a good amount of my downtime and “waste time” on my phone.
So, I began to fill that time with reading books (Communicating For A Change by Andy Stanley, Worship Is… What?! by Tom Kraeuter and AHA by Kyle Idleman), reading my bible, praying and playing my guitar.
Ultimately, I found that I was able to spend more time with God without my phone to distract me.
It’s kinda sad that for me to break my dependence on my phone to entertain me, I had to break a $600 device. But I definitely learned that my phone is a spiritual blocker in my life and I have become extremely thankful for my clumsiness.
This was the lesson I was learning: if that single, little device in my hands has the power to distract me away from spending time with God, what else do I have in my life that is keeping me away from Him?
Before I dropped my phone in the water, I was extremely dependent on it to fill my time. God wants us to be dependent on Him and not on the material items we have.
“Come close to God, and God will come close to you.” – James 4:8a (NLT)
I’m still working on not letting my phone take priority over my relationship with God. It’s a daily battle. Addictions and habits are hard to break.
But it can be done.
My hope is that you and I can find more and more of these distractions in our lives so that we can get rid of them and focus more on God.
“I want to be the kind of man that the more I lose, the more I worship God. Because the more I lose in this world, the more of a treasure he becomes to me at that moment.” – Unknown
Trent Fugitt 