5 min. read
Distraction is a thief. Ironically, a conversation about diversions and noise has been in the drafts for a couple years now. Have you ever become distracted from more valuable things in pursuit of temporary satisfaction? Mindless activities can easily disguise themselves as productive. Doomscrolling can feel like it’s spinning your creative wheel, when that wheel is simply burning out in a parking lot, having never reached the road. Productive procrastination makes one put off the important project for the sake of a less important one that feels equally as diligent.
Noise is constant. And I’m not saying something that nobody’s heard before. I’m deeply aware that you, dear reader, are already privy to this new reality. My intention isn’t to write some groundbreaking new commentary on something everyone already knows.
Bread and Circuses
In the first and second century AD, Roman poet Juvenal popularised the concept of panem et circenses. Translated from latin, it means bread and circuses. The idea centers around citizens trading their civic and political responsibilities and concerns for a steady stream of food and entertainment. Suzanne Collins, author of The Hunger Games saga, expanded on this brilliantly, as the controlling President Snow distracts people from what’s really going on by edifying them with figurative bread and circuses. In the story, people allow barbaric hunger games to take place in an abdication of personal responsibility. A spark of liberty is lit by the few who refuse to be entertained by the games.
It is my belief that we are seeing a major uptick in this kind of distraction happening in real time–and much of it is self-inflicted. This, of course, is the most dangerous kind of destruction, the kind that we want. Even in the course of the last thirty minutes of writing, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve picked up my phone in the search for something more instantly interesting.
What then, is the best course of action? If you’re still reading, you’re most likely someone that wants to be more focused, more creative, and more attentive to those things worthy of one’s time. It would be easy to simply suggest that one try harder, pick up the phone less, or wake up tomorrow and start fresh. Yet how often does that method truly work out? To narrow it all down to a couple key action steps feels like an oversimplification. However, the hard reality is that when it comes to distraction, we are most frequently our own worst enemy. In the age of AI, short-form content, and flashy graphics, the responsibility remains on the individual like me that picks up their phone at least once every five minutes. We are victims of our own destructive desires.
A Tendency Towards Self-Destruction
This self-destructive nature is not simply a problem of our age. This is a human problem. In the book of Romans, Paul laments this condition that is all too relatable, saying “‘I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do’” (Rom. 7:15 NIV). It’s a tongue-twister, but it also resonates deeply with just about everyone. We have a desire to do what is right, but a sinful desire to do what is wrong. When you become a follower of Jesus, you feel this even more deeply, as you truly begin to wage war against the destructive desires of the flesh.
With such a steady flow of entertainment and comfort constantly at our fingertips, it would seem like the enemy has us right where he wants us. In The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis (2013) writes from the perspective of a demon, talking about distracting the young believer, saying “the Nothing is very strong: strong enough to steal away a man’s best years not in sweet sins but in a dreary flickering of the mind over it knows not what and knows not why, in the gratification of curiosities so feeble that the man is only half aware of them…”
Lewis (2013) goes on to write something so convicting it’s as if he saw the 21st century in perfect clarity, saying “Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts…”. It’s never been more true. No one wakes up and decides to spend nine hours of their day on screens watching videos they won’t remember, it just happens. Pastor Kyle Idleman out of Louisville, Kentucky once said that there may not be a more sad way to live life than “to live a life that just happened.”
The Alarm
It’s time to wake up. Forget how I want you to spend your time, how much of your time are you spending the way you actually intend to? The reality is it is not very much, for most people. Paul says in Ephesians, “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil” (Eph. 5:15-16). The concept of “I don’t have time” is a myth. “I don’t have time I’m willing to spend on that” is closer to the truth. I don’t say this to be harsh. I say this to be truthful, and because I need to hear this and hold myself accountable to it as well.
Why do we make an effort? Why do we put our phone down? Why should we stop scrolling, or talking with AI, or watching rot? Because we don’t have time.
Rather than taking the easy road, light underfoot, we must learn to take the hard road. The path of most resistance. The trail that scrapes against our instincts like nails on a chalkboard. We must learn to love that sound, and delight in the struggle.
We must sink to our knees in repentance, and ask the Lord for His help. How was Paul to do the things he desired to do but did not do? He continues, “…In my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom. 7:22-25a). It is Christ that delivers us from our destructive nature. He redeems us and sets us upon a new path. Though the path is harder, it is beautiful. There is life on the road less travelled.
Daily we must learn to strive against the smoke and mirrors, the bread and circuses, and the lesser things that would lead us into a life that just happened. Let it not be so. Instead, let us run hard after Christ into the still, quiet joy of a life full of adventure and beauty, all for the sake of knowing Jesus.
Bibliography
Lewis, C. S. 2013. The Screwtape Letters: Annotated Edition. Harper Collins.
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