Focused Discipleship
by Lisa Coleman
I must confess, in researching this week’s topic, I had difficulty staying on track! As I scrolled through all the different illustrations, I was overwhelmed with so many different ways to demonstrate distractions. Here are but a few:
- Addicted to Distraction
- Billions of Distractions
- Information Glut Drowns Out the Truth
- Are We Enslaved to the Internet?
- We Are spending More Time on Facebook than Ever but Are Less Happy
- We Touch Our Phones at Least 2,617 Times A Day
- Distracted Man on Scooter Drives into Sinkhole
- Police Academy Uses Rubber Chicken to Help Recruits Focus
- In the Time Spent on Social Media You Could Read 200 Books
Well, you get the picture. Television, streaming services, social media, news, books, magazines and the good old standby, our telephones. Even our jobs can be distractions from our objectives. And we know that isn’t an exhaustive list for all the possibilities for distraction.
My Dad had a saying I have always remembered. He was what many would call a workaholic. Maybe. He was the product of the late 40’s to early 50’s. He did not grow up privileged. He had to work. All his life. The last eight years of his life he fought melanoma. Even in this battle, he still brought his work ethic, his focus if you will, to the table. He would be going to this doctor or hospital for one of many treatments and say, “today my job is to …”. Maybe it was radiation, or maybe it was chemo. Often it was one of the many surgeries he endured. Grueling experiences to be sure, but he deemed it his job. He was focused.
Neuroscientists are beginning to identify some common mental processes that elite athletes employ. Joan Vickers, a cognitive psychologist at the University of Calgary calls this the “quiet-eye Theory”. It is a kind of enhanced visual perception that allows the athlete to eliminate any distractions as they plan their next move. It has been studied in golfers as an example. Their eye movements are monitored by a device and show the longer and steadier their gaze on the ball just before, and then during, their strike, the better the player.
Intriguingly, “quiet eye” appears to be particularly important at times of stress, preventing the athlete from “choking” at moments of high pressure. The same laser-sharp focus can help doctors maintain their focus as they perform surgery, and it is of increasing interest to the military. Personally, I would prefer my surgeon, the guy who builds the bridge I drive over every day, and my airplane pilot to refrain from their cell phones and streaming services. My sense of self-preservation says they cannot afford the distractions!
Good things can be distractions too. We live in an amazing age. I know we are all so thankful for the very technology that brings us this email and Zoom meetings for this past year of COVID-19. We have been able to stay connected. Yet there are new coined phrases out there to describe the anxiety caused by too much information: “Data asphyxiation”, “Data smog”, “Information fatigue syndrome”, “Cognitive overload: and “Time famine”. “Wired” means both “connected to the internet” and “high, frantic, unable to concentrate.” Hmmm.
How do we separate the urgent from the most important? The disciples had an idea. Join us this week in class or on Zoom to find out more!
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If you cannot be with us in person, feel free to download the Bible study materials for your personal use by following one of these links: PowerPoint Slides, PDF File. You can also find the video of this session on our YouTube channel soon after the meeting concludes. And lastly, you could follow this link to download other studies in this series: INpowered Discipleship if you happened to miss one of our prior studies.
Yours in Christ,
Eric Glover
The Gospels Class
Brentwood Baptist Church
