Don't Be Distracted

I live near the Pacific Ocean in Canada and love going to the seashore. The beautiful spots along our coast are too numerous to mention.  I’ve lived here for 30 years and still have many places I haven’t seen. 

British Columbia currently operates 52 lighthouses along the coasts in order to keep folks on the water safe. About half of them are manned and I found it interesting to read the memoir of someone who lived many years manning various lighthouses. 

I heard another story about a lighthouse though that caught my attention. Someone was in a boat on the water on a foggy night and was searching for the light from the lighthouse to know how to journey home safely.  No matter how hard they looked, they couldn’t see the light.

They radioed back to the Coast Guard who contacted the lighthouse keeper to find out what was going on and he sheepishly had to admit that he’d been so busy wiping the lens and polishing the brass that he’d forgotten to turn on the light.  A life was almost lost because the keeper was distracted from the most important by other things.

How much of our lives do we live distracted by good, but less important things, to the neglect of what is most important?

It happens so easily in our busy lives.  We have many demands from job and people in our communities.  Our devices call us to this and that and so much time passes before we know it. Events of the day dominate our conversations and too many days we come to the end of the day and realize that we never got to what is most important.

These words from the Bible are so familiar and yet I hope they can call us to reflect and live better today:

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. Matthew 6:33

And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere. Acts 1:8

Heavenly Father, You have stayed focused on us and doing whatever it takes to bring us new life that lasts forever.  You keep priority one as priority one.  Forgive us for not doing the same.

Help us today, we pray, the love You with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and then to love our neighbour as ourself, because You told us everything else is anchored to that. Amen

So, it takes a radical look at what we are doing and how we are spending our time but it so worth the effort to get to the truth and shape our life today around it.  Let’s get to what is most important today and not be distracted by other things.