The Distractions of Life

We all love love to stay busy….well most of us. I can’t stand having too much free time. In this day and age, most of us wouldn’t even know what to do with too much free time.

Most of us either work, go to school, or raise a family…All of which consumes our entire lives. From the crack of dawn till our heads hits the pillow we are frantically running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

I am not saying being busy is a bad thing, in fact staying busy can keep you disciplined and steadfast to life.

But there is such a thing as being consumed by this life. We have heard of the consequences of overworking yourself…Things like health problems, insomnia, anxiety, depression, etc…We have to be careful to not overwork ourselves to an early grave. Some people are just born with an overdrive switch…a switch that just doesn’t turn off.

Most recently we were doing  a remodel for an older individual (93 years old in fact) and he was a very hard working man. Before we started the job he made it his mission to trim all the bushes and move all the obstacles for us to get to the outside of the house. I was absolutely shocked when I seen what he had done upon my arrival. He had cut back the bushes around the entire house. In fact, there was a pile of brush 20 feet tall. I couldn’t believe my eyes. This guy was so hard working he didn’t allow being almost an entire century old stop him….

We probably know many people like this in our lives, they will work and work and work until they hit the hay. I even know guys that work 12-16 hours a day 7 days a week. That’s just insane…What I really think in my mind is what is the point?

We are pressured to conform to the standards of society. We want to impress people, we want people to be in awe of us. We want people to see our “stuff” and be  like “WOW”….Our motives are simply, we don’t want people to think we are losers, slackers, stupid, unsuccessful, etc….So we do everything in our power to try and avoid this in life. We pursue careers because they will make us the most money. We find attractive mates because we want others to be jealous of who we have married. We post, share, tweet, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and whatever other types of social media there are. We share things like our; looks, our accomplishments, our stuff, our kids, our gorgeous significant other….Meanwhile, waiting for someone to say….GOOD JOB! Wow…Impressive…Congrats…All the things that make us feel better about ourselves.

But Whats the point of all this, Why spend an entire life consumed by something that will die when you die. Why spend your entire life chasing dreams that are temporary.

Well, because for most people these distractions of life, are their life. We love being busy, going from school to work, to the gym, to dinner, to sleep and all over again….We love the life that we have here on earth…In fact, some people love it so much they can care less about what comes after.

My testimony: 

I have chased dreams my whole life.. when I was young I opened up a business thinking; man I will be rich, I will be my own boss, I will buy all the stuff I want. I was attracted to this life. I was consumed by it. I felt that making money was what life was all about. At the age of 22 I got bored with my business just 5 short years after opening it, so I decided to chase my dream of an education…..I thought, man, if I can just get an education I will be happy, I will have it all. I will be able to do anything. So I went to Western and graduated with my double bachelors in Marketing and Management….After I had completed the schooling process I was excited, I went out and checked out the job market…talked to businesses talked to business owners. People that were doing corporate Jobs and so forth.

However, the excitement was short lived. Who would’ve thought that spending 6 years in school wouldn’t of actually made me any happier. Anymore successful. I still felt empty, I felt that this career thing was something that was heavily advertised to distract us from the realities of life.

Think about it, we are conditioned our entire lives; school is a must, we need to get an education, it will make life fun, you will be happy, you will raise your kids in a better environment…You are placed in this hamster wheel at a very young age and you aren’t allowed to get off. From grade school ==> college, from college ==> work from work ==>a retirement home.

We have to pay for everything, our cars, our house, our insurance for our car, house, and health…All these bills basically lock you down and don’t allow you freedom. We are like sheep in a pen. We are not able to get out of this vicious cycle of life…And guess what, you don’t even know how to. Because everyone around you is doing the same thing.

Ironically, this entire idea of what we call life is a lie. We choose our livelihood above all else. We spend most of our time so preoccupied with “work” and our “stuff.” We let life creep right by us, only to realize much much later that we are ready for retirement.

The beginning of this year was a blessing, I ended last year finishing a good project that God had blessed me with, only to start the year with an open schedule. God has given me the gift of time. I have had the opportunity to focus on what truly matter, my relationship with God….this blog that hopefully helps others. I have lived in the fast paced life for as long as I can remember. But this year God has actually slowed me down, made me realize that I was put on this earth for more than a successful career. I was placed here to tell people about Jesus. I know many of my readers are reading this and thinking, well I will get around to it eventually, helping others, serving God…Don’t be so sure of that.

I once heard, Satan will not always get you to sin. But he will just keep you busy so you don’t focus on why you are truly here on earth. I think most people that I talk to these days, that call themselves Christian are living more for themselves than for God; and their life is a reflection of that.

I challenge you to spend a little more time meditating in prayer, asking God how you can be of service in this world. How God can use you…..

When you are living a Godly life, all else will be given to you. A good education, career, money, spouse, etc…..stuff shouldn’t be our motive to our life, but a bonus to Gods grace.

Slow down…You don’t need to be sprinting to the finish line…This life is too short to focus on useless things.

And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. (John 2:17)