By Reverend Laurie DeMott

From the office to the home, many of our lives are bursting with commitments and details, so filled that it sometimes feels as if we can't see the forest for the trees. It used to be that the proper resonse to the greeting, "How are you?" was "I'm fine, and you?" but now the most heard response is, "I'm pretty busy, and you?" It doesn't seem to matter whether it is the mother of young children or the man who retired from his job three years ago: everyone is busy. We are busy with meetings, we are busy with chauffeuring kids to lessons and soccer practices, we are busy at work, we are busy going to eye doctors and urologists and dentists and specialists for every part of our body that now requires its own time commitment, and we are busy trying to squeeze in a half hour of exercise a day, so that those same doctors won't yell at us for our horrible neglect. And in the midst of all of this busyness, shows like Oprah are trumpeting the advice of "life coaches" who urge us to write personal mission statements and develop life strategic plans so that we can end up in a place of fulfillment and peace.

I don't know about you but sometimes I get just plumb worn out trying to obtain personal fulfillment and peace!

Trying to grab hold of a life plan and stick to it is a daunting task because no matter how hard we try, we keep getting distracted by the minutia of today. There's been a lot of press lately from both the left and the right criticizing President Obama for not accomplishing any major goals in the first year of his presidency, yet Obama is just one in a long line of presidents who have come into office armed with visions of sweeping change only to become bogged down in the day-to-day details of budget battles and the distractions of unforeseen crises. In the same way, too, we find our carefully laid out plans constantly waylaid by the day-to-day details of intruding distractions. Ask a college student in September about his or her career goals and that student will wax eloquent about dreams of scientific achievement or monetary success; but ask that same student in December and they will shake their heads and say, "Right now my only goal is to finish these three papers and pass all of my finals." The demands of today drive the dreams of tomorrow out of our heads.

So what do we do about these distractions? Well, we could follow the advice of a man that Forbes placed at the top of their 50 Most Powerful People list. He said, "You will encounter many distractions and many temptations to put your goal aside: The security of a job, a wife who wants kids, whatever. But if you hang in there, always following your vision, I have no doubt you will succeed."

That's right, to achieve that life goal, all you need to do is put aside those silly distractions -- job security, a happy marriage, loving children -- and instead focus singlemindedly on your vision. Do that and you too might find yourself at the top of Forbes 50 Most Powerful People list. Oh, wait, I'm sorry, that's the 50 Most Powerful People in Porn. Yes, the man who advises you to put aside the distractions of security, a happy marriage, and children is Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler magazine. And by the way, Flynt has been married five times, is wheelchair bound after an attempted assasination attempt, and is currently estranged from his eldest daughter.

So, you can listen to the advice of a man who has reached the top of the most powerful people in porn by avoiding life's distractions, or, you can listen to another view that comes to us from the book of Acts. In the book of Acts, the disciples have grappled with the purpose of their lives now that Christ has left them in charge and Philip quickly discovers a talent for preaching. He heads off to Samaria where he institutes a country wide evangelical campaign and his mission is incredibly successful. Philip's miracles and teachings are astounding the populace. He's exorcising demons; he's healing the sick, the lame are walking, and people are converting to Christianity right and left. Philip's strategic plan is right on course and going along at full steam. If he keeps on this way, he will soon top Forbes 50 Most Powerful Preachers list and be remembered as the man who converted all of Samaria to Christianity. But then, right in the middle of everything, the Holy Spirit knocks Philip off course. Peter and John head to Samaria to take over the Samaritan ministry and an angel tells Philip to head down the road to preach in the desert.

Now, this does not seem to be the best use of Philip's gifts, frankly. A life coach would look at Philip's skill with the crowds and tell him to stay in Samaria. Pursue the plan. Don't be distracted by the small stuff. Go with your gifts. Follow your dream.

But the Holy Spirit yanks him out of Samaria and sends him down to the desert where the only one to preach to is a curious Ethiopian who wants to do a little Bible Study.

What I get out of this passage is the reminder that God is not Oprah. We may be all concerned about personal fulfillment and strategic plans, and consider all of the small stuff to be distractions that pull us off course, but when I read the gospel carefully I have to wonder if God doesn't consider the distractions the main attraction.

Take a minute to stroll through the gospel story with Jesus. The stories and the lessons that we remember about Jesus' ministry are really the stories of distractions, one after another after another. Jesus is in the middle of teaching when four men cut a hole in the roof of the house to lower a paralyzed friend before Jesus begging that he heal their friend. Jesus is on his way to Capernaum when an officer begs him to take a side trip to his home to heal his sick servant. Jesus is on his way to Galilee when Jairus also turns him aside asking him to heal his daughter and on his way to Jairus' house, Jesus is distracted a second time by a woman who seeks healing for her hemorrhage. Jesus' is dispensing wisdom when children begin to clamber all over him, and the disciples protest the interrution but Jesus takes them into his arms. Some of Jesus' greatest lessons are given in response to men and women who interrupt him: the parable of the Good Samaritan, the story of the Prodigal Son, the warning against riches. The gospel story is the story of one distraction after another and the message to us should be clear -- if you want your life to have eternal significance, pay attention to the distractions.

The way in which we handle the distractions that intrude on our lives determines more about the effectiveness of our spreading the gospel than do any of our life plans, career choices, or programs. The woman who works for legislative change to help the poor but walks by when a homeless man in the street begs for attention has not lived out Christ's gospel of compassion for every person. Likewise, the man who works hard to provide a nice home for his children and financial security for their future but brushes them away when they want to talk or play because he has too much work to do and can't be distracted has failed to live out Christ's gospel of welcoming love. Children don't measure our love by whether our houses are clean or by the size of our retirement accounts -- they measure our love for them by the attention we give when they come home from school crying because someone hit them on the bus, and by the help we give them when they are struggling with an assignment, and by the way we put aside our plans and goals and even our fears for them to listen to their dreams and goals and their fears. Likewise, our friends measure the strength of our friendship by the way we handle those moments when they intrude on our plans. When you put aside your research to listen to a student, you are ministering through the distraction. When you turn away from the pressing needs of inventory to listen quietly to an employee's concerns, you are ministering through the distraction. When you give up your morning exercise to visit a friend in the hospital, you are ministering through the distraction. When you out aside your time for devotional prayer to send out some cards to the sick, you are ministering through the distraction.

A long time ago I did a funeral for a man, not from this church, who was extremely well respected in his field for his accomplished research and his disciplined mind. Known for his dedication to his career, he had never let himself be distracted from his work, and when it came time to say goodbye to him, we could not find a single person who felt they knew him well enough to deliver a eulogy.

Philip was well on his way to fulfilling the goals of his five year strategic plan for Samaria when the Holy Spirit whisked him away to go and talk to an Ethiopian traveler, and then Philip was whisked away just as quickly by the Holy Spirit never to see the Ethiopian again. Just one more distraction for Philip, but for that Ethiopian, it was a life changing encounter and the work of Christ was accomplished.

Are you looking for life fulfillment and wondering how best to serve Christ? Look to the distractions because it may be that it is through those very distractions that we will find the meaning of our lives