Way back in March of this year (before the world went crazy), I was preparing to spend my spring break visiting my daughter and son-in-law who live in the sunny, warm state of Florida. Time to bring my lily-white legs out of hibernation from a long, cold winter of covering them up.  For a very fair-skinned gal prone to skin cancer, self-tanners are what I use to keep from blinding people with the dazzling whiteness of my legs (you’re welcome). The process of applying self-tanner is a very serious event and should be entered into with great determination and intense focus. Knowing all of this, I went through the whole process of showering, shaving, exfoliating, moisturizing and applying. This time, however, I added one extra thing to my regime. I attempted to multi-task and return a phone call at the same time I was applying the self-tanner. That one little distraction resulted in one entire leg being dark on the top and lily-white on the bottom with a distinct line running down the side of my leg dividing the two. Awesome.

Distractions. The enemy’s go-to warfare strategy. It’s the way he gets me every single time. I enter a season of busy-ness and the distractions keep stacking up.

A text.
A sink full of dishes.
A phone call.
A floating tumbleweed of dog/cat hair on the floor.
An email.
Details of a big event that can’t be overlooked.
A defiant child.
A really long to-do list with nothing crossed off.
Repairing a relationship.
Deadlines.
A virus that single-handedly halts everything in the world.
Masks…no masks…racial tensions.

Sometimes the enemy is super subtle and almost trains me to be distracted. I can be talking to someone, my watch zaps my wrist alerting me to a text message and like Pavlov’s dog, out of habit I glance down to see what was sent to me. Distracted again. My attention diverted.

So how do we rein ourselves back in? How do we regain our focus? How do we hear and see all that the Lord is trying to tell us? By being intentional. Carve out some white space in your day. Take off your watch. Step away from your phone. Take a short walk outside and pray. Write down a meaningful Bible verse and meditate on it. Drink some coffee on your front porch while you mentally list all that you are thankful for. Forest bathe (look it up…it’s a thing) and breathe in the world God made for you. Start small…five minutes now can lead to ten minutes later and so on.

In the rushed and hurried world we live in, this will be a very foreign concept. But Scripture says in Luke 5:16, “Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” Often. Not once in a while. Not when things got completely out of control. Not after the distractions threatened to overwhelm Him. Often.

I don’t know about you but I’m tired of allowing the enemy to gain territory in my life by his constant distractions. I’m tired of having my attention diverted from the One who holds all of my strength, all of my answers and all of my joy. And I’m definitely tired of waking up to self-tanning “zebra” legs. It’s time to be intentional.

Lord, I pray that today I will intentionally set aside a time to meet with you with no distractions. I pray that I will continue it tomorrow making it a habit in my daily walk. May I be alert and mindful of the tactics of the enemy and the distractions he hurls my way. I pray for Your discernment and for me to hear Your voice ever so clearly.