Pastor Ray's Blog

Dear Friends,

We’ve been hearing a lot on the news lately about the plane that flew 150 miles beyond the airport where it was supposed to land. There was early speculation that the pilots had dozed off. Later reports said the pilots were arguing. The latest word I heard was that the pilots were using their laptop computers in the cockpit and were simply distracted. They said they had gotten caught up in a discussion about flight scheduling and missed the calls from the tower. Only when a flight attendant called to the cockpit to ask when they would land did they realize they had missed their exit.

Granted, these guys had broken a number of rules, not the least of which was that they were not supposed to use their computers in the cockpit. I would imagine that the general reaction to this incident has been everything from shock to anger. Such a reaction would have been understandable, especially coming from someone who happened to be on that flight.  Who wants a pilot who is not paying attention? This is serious business. 

My first reaction was probably one of disbelief. How in the world can you miss an airport!  On further reflection I have to admit this whole incident has reminded me how very easily one can become distracted in the world in which we live. We carry phones with us wherever we go. They are the great interrupters of our lives (By the way, have you noticed some people cannot stand not to answer their phone?). We can check email from virtually anywhere. We now at times look for places to eat based on whether that place has access to the internet.  We can’t just use lunch time to eat, we also have to surf the web. Our “to do” lists are usually long and in some cases seemingly impossible to accomplish.

Is this sounding at all familiar to you? And let’s be honest, how many of us have been listening to the radio or a CD in our cars, or carrying on a conversation with a person in the car or talking on our cell phone…and suddenly realize we have driven right past the exit where we knew we were supposed to get off? We are easily distracted.

I think we are easily distracted in the spiritual realm as well. We have great intentions of attending church on Sunday and someone calls just as we are ready to head out the door or we get an invitation to the lake or park or wherever. We get ready to sit down for our quiet time with the Bible, but before we do we check our email and end up making our way back to our quiet time 30 minutes later when it is actually time for us to move on to the next thing.

It is admittedly hard to prioritize sometimes. There are so many things that clamor for our attention and some of them are really great and worthy things. Perhaps we need to slow a bit and remember the words of Jesus, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” If we really used that criteria in our decision making I wonder how it would affect lives? Perhaps it would be a helpful thing for all of us to become a bit more focused so we might make sure our lives are heading in the direction we want them to head. It would be a shame if we missed our exit.

Together with you in Christ's service,