Speaker 0 00:00:05 Greetings and welcome to another edition of thinking it through. My name is Greg Jarvis. I'm the host for this podcast put out by village churches that deals with cultural changes, trying to look at them through the mind of Christ. Here's my question for you today. And it's a tough one ever get distracted. Maybe you are prone to distractions. I mean, how many distractions are in our world today? I saw a movie a while ago called up one of the characters in there was Doug, the talking dog. You ever watched this movie? It's hilarious. Doug, the talking dog was a dog who had a color that his master made him so that he could talk. His tail would wag his tongue hanging out. Constantly loves everyone. He sees. He would constantly say, my name is Doug and I love you. Doug is a hilarious
Speaker 1 00:00:54 Character, a dog with human speaking abilities, with the special, magical color, but you cannot take the dog out of Doug. So when he's explaining his ability to speak every once in a while, he'll yell, squirrel and be distracted by these squirrels. And then after that, he simply continues as explanation like nothing ever happened. Look, you might have to hear this for yourself. My name
Speaker 2 00:01:19 Is Doug. I have just met you and I love you. My master made me his color. He isn't good at smart master. And he made me this color so that I make talk squirrel.
Speaker 3 00:01:30 And there you have it.
Speaker 1 00:01:31 The funny thing is that this happens all the way through the movie. Now, if you have a dog, you can so relate to this. ADHD is almost built into a dog's DNA. The more hilarious part of this is I've met people like Doug, the dog, and you're probably think to yourself. So have I, or maybe you're thinking to yourself, I am that dog. You're carrying on a wonderful conversation, sometimes meaningful conversation, and then they're gone. They they're still staring at you. It might even seems like they're listening to you, but you know, you've lost their attention. Something has grabbed their gray matter and sees their attention cell phone ringing or movement in their peripheral vision. Maybe they remember they left the garage door open. Maybe they figured out a punchline to a joke. They heard two days earlier. I don't know. And all you know is somewhere along the way.
Speaker 1 00:02:16 You've just lost them. And suddenly you feel like a preacher on Sunday morning and how they feel about 8.5 minutes into the message on Sunday. As I look over the congregation and think to themselves, I've lost them all. Have you ever had a squirrel moment while driving? If you're a slave to the ding of your phone, you definitely know what a squirrel moment is. You hear the ding and immediately you'll look to see if you're missing a life-changing text. This is very dangerous while you drive, by the way, some places you definitely don't want to have squirrel moments are tight rope, walking, diffusing, a bomb, drilling a tooth. Although I swear, I've heard my dentist say, oops, more than once any surgical procedure skydiving or apologizing to your wife, actually that might be in the same category as diffusing bomb. Uh, you might want to write to me and just may know of a few squirrel moments that you think would be a dangerous squirrel moment for somebody to have.
Speaker 1 00:03:09 Sometimes people accuse me of having squirrel syndrome. My go-to response is simply this. A lot of males have this malady or maybe you're the kind of person that doesn't need much stimuli at all to get distracted. My wife would say it doesn't take much for my attention to be pulled away from, by the most trivial of things. Now I don't intend to be like this. It just seems like my attention is so easily distracted by things. And the more stimuli that gets put into that, the world, the more things grab my attention. Like the apostle Paul I, who shall save me from this body of death. So distracting body of death, or maybe your, your go-to is Shakespeare. Shakespeare would say there are more things in heaven and on earth Horatio than are dreamt of in your philosophy. We could change that too. There are more things in heaven on our earth, Horatio than what I'm currently trying to stay focused on.
Speaker 1 00:03:57 In fact, we all might be more like this than we care to admit ever feel like you're helplessly, living in a world. That's constantly yelling, squirrel, distracting moments. How do you deal with them? Listen, if you think about it, some groups rely on this tactic, magicians count on you having squirrel moments constantly. They just call it different. They call it slight of hand. One friend got me on a Facebook link where I get to see people do magical things all the time. And I get to watch it slowly and figure out how did they do that? Ultimately, you're watching one hand while the other is prepping something you simply don't expect. It's mesmerizing. And you know, you're going to get sucked in, but what do you want? You just want them to do it over and over again so you can figure out how they did it.
Speaker 1 00:04:39 It's a thrill to be tricked. You just want to know how it was done. Do you think our culture thrives on giving us squirrel moments? Facebook is built on this idea, the pull of the scroll, the colors on the screen, these appeal to our addiction, behavioral systems systems have found that the brains of people who report compulsive urges to use Facebook or other similar networking sites, actually show some brain patterns similar to those found in drug addicts. Here's five Facebook addiction signs, and this might apply to other platforms as well. But if you think this might be you and you're thinking yourself, I wonder if I'm addicted to Facebook. Here's five ways. You can know that you might be falling for the squirrel moments. You use it more than you intend to use it. You spend more time on the site when you should be spending time doing other activities.
Speaker 1 00:05:25 Number three, you definitely don't find it awarding, but yet you keep engaging in excessive use. Number four, you feel social. When you use the site, number five, you experienced consequences in relationship as a result of Facebook you use, and yet keep using it. If these are the results, why do we keep using Facebook? Well, simply this, it appeals to the squirrel. Part of the human existence. Technology continues to promise that through it, we can be smarter, more creative, more informed, but what if, while we're actually looking for these benefits or, or pleasure or education in, in, in engaging these platforms, what if we're actually having the life sucked out of us from 2012 to 2018, the amount of time an average user spent on social media increased by 56%. That's over two hours a day in just five years. Some in our government are trying to pass laws to regulate the addictive part of online platforms.
Speaker 1 00:06:22 Senator Holly, who is from Missouri claims that Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and other social media providers have embraced a business model of addiction to design products, which capture more attention by using psychological tricks that make it difficult to look away. Culture does not seem to be interested in fixing this potential danger. We're living in an attention economy. Business. Usually the source of revenue for a business is the product you sell. For instance, if you sell tomatoes, you build your business by selling more tomatoes. If you sell underwear, you built your business by selling more underwear for our culture today, the product is our attention. Do you ever wonder how your computer knows what advertisements to put on your screen? Sidebar? You are the product. Your attention is being sold to advertisers. Your attention has been sold to the higher bidder, but this is how I find it working on my computer and an advertisement pops up for me to purchase a new smoker for the brisket.
Speaker 1 00:07:18 I just shopped online. How did they know that I don't care, but I better go. You're on it. I might miss out. Alexa does this to me constantly time to order more soap detergent. She blurts out with me even asking her if I need soap detergent, Alexa is playing squirrel with me. So I drop everything and I order more soap detergent. And it's not just my computer or Alexa working against me ever watch Fox news. Every story is now introduced with breaking news. You don't want to miss what's coming next squirrel. I'm becoming convinced that our world world runs on the squirrel princess. Well, I'm amazed at how many times our culture will seek to change. My focus years ago. Oh, it was saved the whales. Where are the whales? Now? Wait, wait, wait. We got something more important. The ozone layer is disintegrating your family.
Speaker 1 00:08:00 We froze to death in 10 years. Wait, wait, wait. There's something more important. The rainforest is dying. Oxygen levels will be gone in 10 years. Well, I'll be wearing oxygen masks act. Now squirrel squirrel squirrel. Our attention is constantly distracted by whatever those yelling squirrel are selling. Okay. You might say, I admit it. I'm a bit squirrel prone, but those are all good causes maybe, but like the magician grabbing your attention with one hand. Don't you ever wonder what's going on in the other hand of the person or group yelling squirrel, God has a word that he keeps using in the Bible. For those of us prone, to be distracted by every squirrel thrown in our direction. And that word is sober minded. Sober-minded means being aware of your surroundings, but staying focused on the goal. First Thessalonians five puts it this way. In verse five, you are children of light children of the day.
Speaker 1 00:08:51 We are not of the night or the darkness. So let us not sleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. God is saying, be wise, be vigilant. Don't be lulled to sleep on. The important things stay awake. Be sober-minded. Peter is a great example of the pitfalls of squirrel moments in Matthew 14, John, the Baptist has just been murdered by a wicked king, Herod John, the Baptist and Jesus were not only related. They were very close friends, their whole lives, Jesus needed some time alone. After receiving that news to pray, to refocus on what was important, Jesus was doing what needed to be done to stay focused in the moment of his pain, over losing his friend, John. So he sent his disciples out on a boat to go across the sea of Galilee. He said, I'll catch up with you later.
Speaker 1 00:09:40 I'm going into a mountain to pray. And he went to refocus his mind. Then a terrible storm came up. Now these were seasoned fishermen and they had been on this water plenty of times, but there was a danger in the sea of Galilee. It was surrounded by mountains and the storms would come over the mountains sometimes without notice the cool air of the mountains and the warm air on the water would blend and create life-threatening storms in minutes. But Jesus caught up to them, even in the middle of the storm, he caught up to them. All right. He was walking toward them. Now don't tell me, Jesus doesn't have a sense of humor walking on the sea, in the middle of a storm. Now, when they saw it, they thought it was a ghost. I mean who wouldn't, but when they realized it was Jesus, they were amazed.
Speaker 1 00:10:23 This was a pretty cool miracle. And Peter wasn't about to let this moment slip by. So blurting over the rest of it. Them as they're screaming in terror, they're going to lose their lives. He says to Jesus, if it's you, can I walk on water too? And Jesus said, come on out, Matthew 14, 20 Peter said to him, Lord, if it's you command me to come up to you out on the water. And he said, come. So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. Is that awesome? It had to be the coolest thing to stand on the water in the middle of a churning kicking wild sea. And he did it for a while. And then he had a squirrel moment in verse 30. It said when he saw the wind, he was afraid and began to sink.
Speaker 1 00:11:03 And he cried out to the Lord and said, save me. Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, oh, you of little faith. Why did you doubt Peter doubted? Because Peter was distracted. He was not sober-minded about what was happening. He was scared. He realized where he was. He took his eyes off the power of Jesus Christ and then he sank. And he was rebuked. When I see Peter, I'm going to ask him how he felt after that moment. I'll bet you any money. Peter wished he could have had that opportunity back a thousand times in his life after that. But he learned a valuable lesson. Don't take your eyes off. What really matters about 20 years after that moment, Peter wrote letters to the new church, churches in Asia, minor and Europe. We call them epistles. Can I ask you something?
Speaker 1 00:11:51 What do you think would be one of Peter's themes? And he constantly wrote to these new followers of Jesus. You guessed it. Be watchful, be sober, keep your eyes on Jesus. If anyone knew Peter knew our human tendency for distraction. He knew he failed this test, standing in front of his savior and his friends that fateful night of the storm and his advice to them, to the new church and to all of us is the same. Keep your eyes focused on Jesus. There's actually a familiar verse. Peter wrote, and many of us actually are very familiar with it today. And after this podcast, it might hold some new meaning for you in his first letter that he wrote in first, Peter, he encouraged the followers of Jesus to stay sober-minded and don't fall for the distractions all around him. Here's what he said in first, Peter five and verse eight, be sober-minded be watchful.
Speaker 1 00:12:44 Your adversary, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Hear it. He said, be aware, keep your eye on the ball. Don't fall for distractions. There's someone out there waiting for you to lose sight of what's really important. And they'll take advantage of it. Satan would love nothing more then for you to be distracted by squirrel moments. And then it's no surprise that the next seven words are resist him. Stand firm in your faith. Can't you see Peter thinking about that moment, standing on the water and being distracted by the waves and the storm all around him. Okay, Craig, I know I'm in this culture. That's kind of slowly yelling squirrel. How do I fight it? How do I teach myself to be more sober-minded how do I stay focused on Jesus? When the world seems to be falling apart? Here's the, the solution.
Speaker 1 00:13:28 One word Sabbath, Sabbath was given to us from the moment Adam and Eve were created right at the beginning. God took a break on the last day, simply because not he needed a rest, but because we needed an example. When you think Sabbath, think rest to refocus, setting aside a day or a time on purpose to refocus our attention. Jesus said himself, people were not created for the Sabbath. The Sabbath was created for people. Our tendency is not to focus our minds on God. So God created a way for that to happen. Intentional way. Our tendency is to run from one crisis to the moment to the next. So God gave us a way to force ourselves, to focus our attention on what really matters. He's calls it Sabbath. And it begins with us setting aside a few moments to refocus when everyone, no one else around us keeps yelling squirrel.
Speaker 1 00:14:19 We need a moment to force focus our minds on what really matters. We need a moment to focus on. Who's really in charge. Here are these words from the scroll disciple himself in the very first chapter of first Peter verse 24, all is like grass and its glory. Like the flower of the grass, the grass Withers and the flower fails. But the word of the day, Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you. Peter is saying squirrels will come and go, but God's word remains forever. The world may change crisis change. They'll always be another squirrel to capture our attention. Those leading our information cycles will constantly want us to focus on this terror or that cause. And the next thing that convinces us, the sky is falling in my backyard, but God is still in control and we're still on mission.
Speaker 1 00:15:06 So be sober-minded about this and don't be distracted by somebody with their own agenda. My advice is resist the urge to follow Doug. The talking dog, Satan loves for our attention to get off Christ. He succeeds that way. Instead resist stand firm. Don't be distracted by the next group that yells squirrel don't be distracted by the waves. My encouragement for you is the same as for me. Will you commit with me to follow the example of Jesus? Remember what Jesus was doing when the disciples were fretting into, in terror, Jesus was in prayer, spending time with God refocusing. The disciples were rowing in terror. If you're distracted by the evil in the world, if you're prone to get your attention off Jesus and under the latest cause being sold. Do you remember Peter Chase squirrels? And it got him into trouble. Jesus spent time in prayer, spending his time with God, keeping focused on the mission God had for him. And so can you spend the Sabbath moment with God today and tomorrow and the next day? Listen, there's just not that many squirrels that need your attention right now, but God will always do miracles. When we get
Speaker 0 00:16:09 Our attention back on him and his promise to control all the scrolls we could chase and our COVID filled world today. One great way to refocus is get back to church. You can always check us out at village church east, or find a church that will help you refocus on God and the promises in his word. You can check us out if you'd like
[email protected]. And remember the next time you hear a squirrel, take a moment to stop and spend time with God first. You'll never appreciate how that Sabbath moment with him will help your soul by refocusing your mind and your heart on what's most important. I hope you'll join me again. As we spend time, next time thinking it through. It's been a privilege.
