Sunday, October 24, 2021
Sunday Reflection: Distraction
There is a great public television program here in Minneapolis called Almanac. It runs for an hour every Friday, and it has for the last three-and-a-half decades on stations across Minnesota. I'm surprised at how many people I know who watch it every week. It's basically the most Minnesotan bit of media around.
When legal issues bubble up, I get to join the show now and then (probably five or six times so far). I love doing it, of course-- it is a great show.
I did the show on Friday to talk about the sentencing in an important local case (you can see the segment here). As I as talking, a fly came by and decided it wanted to buzz around my face. Fortunately, the fly never actually landed on my head, so I avoided a Mike Pence moment, but it was plenty distracting (though I think I worked through it pretty well). I was really tempted to swat at the sucker, though!
Too often, we let the distractions become more important than what we are doing-- or supposed to be doing. I know that happens to me ALL the time. Lately, I've been distracted by little things that bug me, but aren't really worth even a moment-- those everyday bits of unpleasantness that come from traffic or a rude person.
And I realize, too, that too often my personal theology is sidetracked by distractions. I have a few, simple core beliefs, and the other stuff just does not matter so much-- but I find myself going down rabbit holes. For example, my view on the Bible and its authority is simple: I follow the teachings of Jesus. That means that what informs my faith is what Jesus taught. The rest of it is important context, with some poetry, storytelling, fable and history thrown in. But sometimes I get tugged into the rabbit-hole of the Epistles, for example, and lose track of what is really important.
But maybe I'm getting better-- after all, I didn't swat the fly.
