Distractions--Are They?

 

Recently, I was in a discussion about distractions. It didn't sit right with me, and I want to clarify my thoughts on the topic. First of all what are distractions?

A distraction is an action, line of thought, or path that diverts you from what you should be doing, thinking about, or pursuing at a given time.

That's actually a lot to unpack. 

First of all, nothing is inherently a distraction; e.g., that video game you're playing is a distraction only if you're using it to avoid what you know would be preferable to do at this moment. But if it's legitimately downtime for you right now, and your choice of activity for your brain's change of pace is a video game, the game doesn't meet the definition of a distraction.

Also, timing is important. If you're supposed to be logging in to work but instead you're catching up on the three weeks' worth of Wordles you've missed, the game is a distraction. If you're thinking about your novel, your grocery list, or the Little League game you're coaching at five o'clock, then those are distractions--right now, although they won't be when it's time for them.

Let's say something is a distraction right now. Is it always wrong to let the distraction take over? Distraction can be the mother of creativity, and we ought not forget that. Products as diverse as Coca-Cola and the microwave oven were developed because the inventors were distracted from their original projects. Sometimes you have to go down a rabbit trail awhile before you realize it's the trail you should be on. 

Ah, which brings us to that word. Should. Who decides what we should be doing right now, and whether other things are, therefore, distractions? 

The Holy Spirit living within us does. Right? Sometimes our goals are exactly that: our goals. That is, goals can be distractions. The thing God switches us to in lieu of our prior pursuits is the main thing; it is not the distraction. 

In the aforementioned discussion I was part of, games and other amusements were being equated with distraction in a rather absolute way. Perhaps we should be praying instead, it was suggested. And perhaps so. But here's another perhaps: Perhaps the accuser has come along to tempt you with a sense of false guilt for not performing a religious activity right now. Perhaps he's come along to lay on you another form of the American disease called Crazy Busy. We have been persuaded that we don't need and can't afford rest in its various forms, and therefore we should feel guilty taking it. Eschewing rest is sin, and I'll have more to say on this in future posts. 

But to begin with, at least, when faced with the word "distractions," we should stop and ask, "Are they? In this case and at this time? Are they really?" And then listen for the Holy Spirit's answer.  

Not Just For Thanksgiving

 

In autumn, the ruby blankets spread over the land. Fall color isn't just for the trees.

Praise God for variety. In foods. In the way plants grow. In His special provisions for animal and plant life in each and every location on the earth. 

When I was growing up, my parents stressed the importance of buying the products your region and state produce. Now, as soon as cranberries appear in stores each fall, I buy some every week and freeze them for year-round use. With orange, a bit of honey, and a shake of cinnamon, they make a wonderful sweet-tart sauce. A celebration of God and thanks every day. 

Ideas

 A common saying among professional writers is that they have so many ideas they will never live long enough to write them all. 

That was never me. 

In fact, one time I developed a program specifically about idea generation to present at a writer's conference--because who needed some techniques to do just that? Me! (Another common saying among professional writers is that the more you teach, critique, or mentor, the more you yourself learn. That one I can vouch for. Also, when two people emailed me to say they'd sold projects as a direct result of ideas they generated during my session, I was soooo blessed. And when I was asked to repeat the session at a later conference, blessed again.)  

For years--decades--I seldom had more than one viable book idea at a time, although you can make a career this way, to paraphrase E. L. Doctorow. (He said, "Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.") And when you consider that the majority of the ideas other writers seem to be bursting with will not eventually become books--they never get to the concept stage, or they won't pass the market test, or somebody else will publish almost the exact same thing first, which happens way oftener than you think--you realize you really do need quite a lot of ideas indeed. 

That was never me.

Now, though? Writing for this blog? I have so many ideas I may never write them all.

They spring up at any moment, no matter what I may be doing. Often they're triggered by Scripture; sometimes a line or thought from another book suggests a topic; sometimes a conversation; sometimes they do just pop and glow like a lightbulb, seemingly from nowhere. What they are, I believe, is gifts from the Holy Spirit, whispers from Him to me, specific assignments different from those He may be giving to others. They give a sense of life, refreshment, movement, encouragement, and they make the point that this is all Him. They help me become less of me, more a vessel for Him. 

Overflowing with ideas? That was never me. All the better to see the Holy Spirit work through me.

Light, More Light, Continued (Controversies #12)

Maybe you have to be able to remember life in the '50s, but isn't it interesting how the way we treat Halloween has changed over the decades? When I was a child, it was one day. We could wear costumes to school--maybe only for the afternoon; I don't quite remember. Kids went home for lunch in those days! We went trick-or-treating, after dark, in our immediate neighborhoods, sans adults, and collected a modest yet generous bag of candy. The unofficial cutoff age was twelve. That was all there was to it.

Now, Halloween is as much for adults as for children, and it goes all month long. People put lights on their houses, graveyards on their lawns, dress the part for weeks. A quick search of Halloween events in my area includes haunted houses, pub crawls, a vampire circus (whatever exactly that means), and something called Dominion of Terror. Just fun, you say? But it gets much darker. Witches observe Samhain through such practices as divination and lighting fires to guide the souls of the dead. Communities from our local Light! More Light! university (prior reference here) go down to the riverside on October 31 to perform pagan rituals. 

This is not your grandma's Halloween. I'm not saying the darker aspects weren't always there, but given room, they've gotten bolder. Somehow, I think the fable of The Camel and the Tent applies.

If it's just fun, why is it directly traceable to the ancient Celtic ritual of scaring off ghosts? Does that sound like something Christ would have sanctioned? If not, it's not for us, and to dabble in it is a compromise. As so often happened in the early church, Pope Gregory may have tried to pretty things up by making November 1 All Saints' Day, but Samhain's resulting new name--All Hallows Eve--didn't change its essence or substance. Every single time syncretism (the attempt to blend pagan and Godly worship) appears in Scripture, God rejects it. What we may not realize is that when Aaron made the golden calf and said, "Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD," he didn't mean the calf. The word LORD appears in small caps, which designates the name Yahweh. Rather than completely replace the true God, Aaron was trying to worship Him with an idol. We know how that turned out. Christianizing pagan practice doesn't work with God, and though we can't claim today that absolutely none of our Christian observances have no pagan ties at all, that's no excuse for taking part in something as blatant as Halloween. 

Decorate your homes and yards with all the beautiful bounty of the season, but let's eschew the dead stuff. Christ, the Light of the World, has come that we may have life, and life more abundant.