“The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”
Matthew 13: 45-46 (NIV)
Distraction can be a wonderful thing. It can bring much needed relief from life’s stresses and pressures! Watching a season of that show that you have become such an aficionado of or an activity that you never thought you would do has now turned into a passionate hobby! Such focus can be very life-giving and important for our wellbeing, yet there are certain distractions that can be harmful or consuming and leave us lost, frustrated, anxious, angry or low.
Such distraction is preempted by lies that seek to challenge our standing before God; our identity or our value to God, others or ourselves. This could be anything from believing the lie that you are less important to God because you have witnessed others receiving answers to prayer when you are still waiting on God for answers to your own cries of the heart to comparing your career, family or relationship status to others, thinking that you do not measure up in comparison.
In short, distraction is harmful when it is anything that takes our eyes off our saviour Jesus who is the end of our wandering hunger and search for love, acceptance and peace. He is the author and sovereign of these precious needs and is the only place where we find our deepest needs met. Distractions won’t actually solve the insecurities and imperfections of our heart, they offer no remedy other than hollow solutions that accentuate rather than solve our discomfort. That salary, career or relationship will ultimately not satisfy or slake the lie or insecurity that has captivated our attention away from Christ. Why? Because in no other place, person or job will you find your thirst for satisfaction or peace fully quenched. Only the living waters that Jesus offers can suffice your aching heart. In him all the fulness of the deity dwells in bodily form (Colossians 2: 9-10 (NIV)): the beauty, majesty, holiness, love, mighty power, compassion, peace and faithfulness.
What wonderful joy that as the fullness of God incarnate, Jesus, sees us just as he saw the woman at the well, the man at the pool of Bethsaida or the woman caught in adultery in a way that no one else can or will see. However imperfect, wayward or broken we see ourselves or feel others see us, Jesus sees someone he loves and values enough to the very depth and core of who we are to take our place at the cross. He saw our need for redemption not only from wrong and destructive behaviours but also what was lost at the fall at the beginning of creation: redemption of our identity, worth and acceptance. As an act, His choice to take your place and the blessings that followed as result, cemented forever the reality of the unfathomable height, depth, holy, fierce and undeserved love that God really bears at the core of his heart for you and for me.
It is this reminder that I find I need and hopefully you do too that leads us back to the Pearl of Great price that Christ truly is. Let us treasure him, for in no other place can you find such an eternal treasure whose living waters do not fail to meet you at your deepest point of need.
© 2023, Benjamin Trowbridge
Abba's Dearly Beloved 