Most of you know what the title means. I saw the concept first in the movie Up about the old man who moves his house to South America with balloons. He runs into a dog there with a device that allows it to talk and we quickly discover that the dog is easily distracted with "Squirrel!" Dopey dog. So I find it disheartening that we can be so equally dopey by being so easily distracted.
It starts at the shallow level. Character counts, but we get distracted by appearance. Money might be a useful tool for good, but we get distracted by greed. That sort of thing. And to varying amounts. More importantly, we get distracted from the really important.
We were built for a singular reason -- to glorify God. Everything that was made was made for that purpose. Nothing else matters. Everything, directly or indirectly, is aimed at that (Col 1:16-17). And yet, it seems, that everything rises to higher importance to us than that. Even when we know better. We understand that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and then proceed to care little for the glory of God. We are clearly told that we should do everything for the glory of God (1 Cor 10:31) and then do as little as possible for the glory of God. If we're normal our primary concern is our own welfare, our own comfort, our own rights, our own pleasures. If we're super spiritual we might consider the welfare, comfort, rights, and pleasures of others. That's really remarkable. But we -- even we Christians -- aren't very concerned for God's concerns. So the best of us want to feed the hungry when what they need is spiritual food and house the homeless when what they need is reconciliation with God. We campaign for better laws when what is needed is new life. We work hard to change from without when what is necessary is to change from within. And we wonder why we seem to make so little headway.
We should do better. We, the redeemed, the new creatures in Christ, we should do better. We should let our lights shine before men in such a way that they would see our good works and glorify the Father (Matt 5:16). We should love our neighbors to the glory of God. We should speak of Christ to the glory of the Father (Php 2:11). We should preach the gospel of the glory of Christ (2 Cor 4:4). If we can avoid being distracted so easily by the cares and notions of the world to keep in mind what is really important, it should order our lives much better. Or ... Squirrel!
2 comments:
well as usual; you stated the case with lucid detail. What do you suggest?
suppose that i said " yea i have that Problem" now what?
I can hardly focus long enough in prayer to stay on point, much less keeping my life on point. Perhaps you can highlight some solutions. as with most of your post, you highlight the problem well, but leave off the solution set. In doing so, you run the risk of sounding more like a diatribe, and less like enlightenment.
Thanks for the encouragement. I'll try to think of something ... if I can just focus.
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