Last year for my birthday, I talked Ken into getting me a yellow lab puppy. His official name is Koni’s Birthday Brody, but we just call him Brody. He has grown from an 11 pound furball to an 80 pound gentle giant in less than a year’s time. Brody requires A LOT of exercise so he doesn’t destroy our things. And since I don’t have little kids to buy for any more, Brody also has a great variety of toys. Petsmart has become our new Toys R Us. His favorite toy is an oversized squeaky tennis ball designed for his oversized slobbery mouth. It’s not just his favorite toy, it’s his obsession. This has been a great advantage for me in our nightly walks. If I have that ball in my hand, Brody is completely focused on me. When he’s focused on me, he stays with me, goes where I go, and does what I tell him to do. There has been a time or two that he’s gotten distracted by a cat or another dog. When his focus changes from me to something else for very long, it’s like he can’t even hear my voice when I call him and that can put him in real danger especially if there’s traffic.
It’s very easy to get distracted isn’t it? Life has so many built in distractions – work, household chores, television, and obligations are just a few. Then there are the distractions that we create like obsessing about what other people are doing or not doing. Martha did this in Luke 4:10 and Jesus admonished her for it. It must be a common problem, because Paul talked about it in Romans 4:12 too – “So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.” Imagine that! We are only responsible for what we are supposed to be doing! It’s an ingenious tactic in our enemy’s battle plan to get us to concentrate on something other than God’s specific design for us. Then we have a much harder time hearing God’s voice. We don’t stay close to God, we don’t go where He wants us to go, or do what He wants us to do. We, like Brody, are in great danger when we take our focus off of the Master.
