Is This A Distraction?

Yesterday morning as I stepped outside, my animals bounded out the door, once again eager to investigate the new day.
They seemed energized by the new snowfall as dogs chased cats, cats chased rabbits. All was well until I spotted my barn cat Danny, crouched motionless beside a bush and on the other side of the bush, a rabbit quietly sat. I anticipated at any moment Danny would pounce and the struggle would begin. Danny is our favourite barn cat although we choose to ignore his passion for killing. Hoping to prevent this all being played out before my eyes, I yelled his name, sending Hank, my border collie, bounding out to investigate. I was able to get to the rabbit and realized he had already been victimized. On his cheek, the flesh was torn with blood spilling out onto the snow. As Danny had obviously missed in the first struggle, I believe his strategy was now to wait until the rabbit had weakened before proceeding. I swept up bunny to bring him inside, once again thinking how unfortunate...'another distraction in an already busy day.' I could see that I was going to have to rearrange my day. But was it really a distraction? Sometimes what we think are distractions, are purposeful events in our day, chosen for us to learn from and what we think is the inevitable: our obligations, schedules, things that consume us, are merely distractions.

I like what Cheryl from Transparent Shepherding says: Day to day thoughts and happenings often fall by the way-side untouched to reasoning behind it all. The book of Ecclesiastes says "...there is a time and purpose for everything under Heaven." To me this means nothing, NOTHING goes unnoticed by our Heavenly Father, no matter how large or small we may think it is. With this in mind, how much more should we consider (and reconsider) our every thought, action, reaction etc.

It does not matter as much whether all the thoughts and events of our day are God ordained but how we choose to deal with them. How do we decide what are the distractions in our day? I wish I could tell you but I do know that just that morning, the Lord had been impressing upon me to order my steps wisely. According to C.S. Lewis, when we choose to become a Christian, some of the things we want to do, turn out to be what we call wrong and we must give them up. Some of the things our self does not want to do, turns out to be right and we need to do them. So when all the demands have been met of this new life, we are hoping that the poor 'natural self' will still have some choices and time to get on with our life. It will always be a dilemma which causes us concern, uneasiness and guilt each day when we approach it this way. (Mere Christianity) However, Christ says to hand over that 'natural self' and He will give you a new self. Dare we give Him our whole self with all our wishes and desires?

That is why the real problem of the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply to shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day. Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings; coming in out of the wind." Mere Christianity

When things, people, ideas unexpectedly come our way as we happen upon our journey, and we see these as great interruptions to our lives; we have probably taken the new day we have placed in God's hands away from Him. He is no longer in charge and we are apt to get distracted.

There are times when the distractions in life are more than just annoying but place themselves squarely in our path as we attempt to go God's way. Feeling the call of God to the Lisu people of China, Isobel Kuhn pours her heart out to J.O. Fraser because her parents will not let her enter the mission field. He began by telling her how lonely the life of a missionary can be.

After he finished, she told him about her mother's determination to keep her at home, and he heard her out in silence. When it seemed that he wasn't going to say anything more, she ventured to ask if he would underline a verse in her bible to take along when she went to bible school-if the Lord opened the way. He turned to 1 Peter, chapter 5. Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist- He underlined the last words twice, then stared out across the ocean.

Finally he said, "Miss Miller, I have sensed that Satan is opposing you and working through your mother and your brother. We are taught "whom resist" when it comes to obstacles produced by the Devil. I think that this should be your stand. I have a prayer that I often use when I run into problems; If this obstacle be from Thee, Lord, I accept it; but if it be from Satan, I refuse him and all his works in the name of Calvary."
(Nothing Daunted. The Story of Isobel Kuhn)
Isobel was to remember this advise and it served her well at crucial times on the mission field to the Lisu people.


Well, my day was reordered, bunny was cared for, and Danny was...sigh...Danny disappeared into the woods to hunt yet again. I will feed him an extra large supper in hopes that he won't want rabbit for breakfast tomorrow. I had planned for three more blogs before Christmas but this one sneaked out- hoping that it was not a distraction.