M2-S3: PRUNING DISTRACTIONS
SUMMARY
- Where we set our minds determines our destiny.
- In our ever changing “liquid” modern world, our attention is a scarce resource.
- We have been trained (spiritually formed) to keep our attention on digital distractions.
- Even if our big priorities are set right, we lose countless hours to the enemy’s little distractions.
- Paying attention to our attention is a needed discipline in our age.
- Distractions are whatever is actively taking your attention away from your kingdom calling in the moment.
- Regularly pruning distractions creates room for God to speak more clearly to us.
PRACTICE: REGULARLY PRUNE DISTRACTIONS
- Make a list of the things that are grabbing your attention.
- Discern which ones are worthwhile and which are distractions.
- Prioritize the ones that are worthwhile and identify opportunities to prune ones that don’t need your attention right now.
- Identify some small steps toward pruning these sources of distraction.
- Try out small steps, reflect on your progress, and adjust as needed.
- Involve your group as you try out the small steps.
SCRIPTURE FOCUS
Philippians 3:17-4:1
- 3:17: After the Philippian Christians received the gospel from Paul, how did they learn how to walk in the way of Jesus?
- 3:18: What does it look like to live as an enemy of the cross of Christ?
- 3:19: What is the alternative to the cross? If God is not their god, who is? And what does the future look like for those that live this way?
- 3:19b: What does it mean to set your mind on something? (See also Romans 8:5-8)
- 3:20: What’s it like to “eagerly await” something?
- 3:21: What does the future look like for those who set their minds on Jesus?
THE DIGITAL WORLD AND ATTENTION SCARCITY
We moderns don’t talk about setting our minds on things much any more, it’s an antiquated saying.
These days, we’re more likely to talk about the same concept using the language of “attention.” What are you paying attention to?
My sense is that most of us are caught between two worlds: the real world in which we have spouses, parents, children, mortgages, cars, cupboards with groceries in them, lawn care, and cups of coffee. And then there’s the digital world, which has grown increasingly real over the last ten years. For many of us, our coworkers, workplaces, paychecks, car payments, health care, and more exist in a kind of semi-real digital medium that has been enabled by our computers and smartphones.
Our attention is focused on “real stuff” and it’s also set on “digital stuff.” And it’s harder every day to tell the difference.
In this ever-changing “liquid” modern world we live in, our attention is a scarce resource. So much so that we even have whole new concepts to describe the reality. Anybody ever heard of the “attention economy?”
The idea appeared about ten years ago just as smartphones really hit the scene and a vast and growing number of people had one. Suddenly, no matter where you were, you carried around in your pocket a little black mirror through which you could cast your gaze literally anywhere. All the practical infinity of the world’s knowledge was suddenly perfectly portable, all the people and places and textures of the world within the grasp of our hand.
Of course these little devices weren’t just passive portals, waiting for us to step through them into other worlds. No, they were little agents in themselves, buzzing and chirping, demanding our attention whenever the designers thought that you needed to be interrupted by something they considered important. Some of these were what you might think: a phone call or a text message, another human being trying to get your attention.
Then it was each new email, then new tweets by the dozens and then hundreds or thousands of people I followed, then Facebook likes, then Instagram posts and likes, new YouTube videos, TikToks, news feed headlines, on and on until we began to stagger under the weight of the interruptions.
Vastly complicated new software development disciplines were merged with psychology and neurochemistry PHDs, all of them working together to figure out how to cut through the sea of interruptions at just the right time to get a little slice of each person’s rapidly dwindling attention budget. And with each payment of our attention, we were rewarded by little bursts of dopamine, little dabs of neurochemical pleasure when we respond to the interruptions and turn our attention to our little black mirror.
There were only so many hours in a day, only so many times they could get us to look at our phone (even though it was a lot!). Almost overnight, entire business models—literal billions of dollars—rested on who could make this new attention economy work for their business.
SPIRITUAL FORMATION VIA NOTIFICATIONS
Ah, we might be thinking—but I’ve mastered notifications on my phone. I’ve turned off notifications so that only the President of the United States can call my phone and it will actually make a sound.
I’m afraid the damage has already been done. The interruptions are now lodged in me. Whether it interrupts me or not, I know that my phone is a limitless source of dopamine pings. I no longer require any direct stimulus from the device. I already know that every person I know can be reached with just a few taps. And that’s hardly the beginning.
Every important thing that is going on in my neighborhood, in my town, statewide, nationally, and globally is right there in my pocket. My financial status is there, my health app and whether I’ve exercised today and my doctor is there. The weather coming up in five minutes and five hours and five days is there. And what’s more, the respective infinities of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, the RSS Feed reader, news blog, or whatever else is in my pocket just waiting for the briefest space when my attention is not absolutely required somewhere else. It doesn’t have to make a sound or even the slightest vibration and I’m drawn to it.
Even if I throw away my phone, I can’t escape because these realities are changing everyone else around me, such that I would in some sense be left behind if I’m not relentlessly paying attention.
It’s exhausting, isn’t it?
Here’s the scary part: all of this effort they’ve put into this is spiritual formation. It is training us what to love, where to put our attention, what really matters, what is worth sacrificing for. It is spiritual formation, but it is not from the Spirit of God.
SET YOUR MINDS ON THINGS ABOVE
In a world like this, Paul says “set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”
Oh but we feel it don’t we? Easier said than done. How long can I abide in silence before I have to get up and check my phone?
The church has never seen a world quite like this. And not for a long, long time have Christians in our part of the world faced such a crisis of attention.
If we are going to become people for whom walking together with Jesus is the most important thing, we have to be people who can set our minds on his kingdom, on the things he says are worth our attention.
This is going to require us, as strange as it sounds, to pay attention to our attention. What is occupying our minds? What are the sources that are speaking into our hearts? What’s telling us how the world really works? What’s telling us what’s important? What’s telling us what’s worth sacrificing for?
Because here’s the root of the issue: nothing has changed for any of us for what we say is important: we would all say that Jesus is the most important, that church is vitally important, that our families and friends are very important. We haven’t lost sight of the big things, at least in theory.
No, the enemy is getting in through the cracks. Got two minutes? Don’t think of God, check your phone. A break between meetings? Check email, don’t think of God. Don’t turn your attention toward the people in your small group. Finally get to sit down after cooking dinner for your family? Don’t think of God. Don’t do something actually restful, scroll your news feed and get riled up, get carried away into a dark, desperate reality that can suck up the rest of your emotional energy for the day.
It’s through the little things, through the tiny increments of time, the nickels and dimes of our attention, not the hundred dollar bills that the enemy is getting at us. Eventually the nickels and dimes add up.
Remember our text in Philippians: where we actually set our minds determines our future.
So what does all this mean? I don’t think any of us know yet. We don’t have all this perfectly worked out because things are changing too fast.
But we do know this much: the answer isn’t to become Amish. If we leave the digital world completely, we leave our influence in the “real” world too, because the two are increasingly mixed, and there is nothing we can do about that, at least not until every person in America undergoes Regnare training.
So how do we become people for whom walking together with Jesus is the most important thing? How do we become people who set our minds on things above in an attentional environment like this?
PRACTICE: PRUNING DISTRACTIONS
We prune distractions. Let’s define distraction here for a moment: anything that threaten to take your attention away from the kingdom activity in the moment. Remember, kingdom activity is whatever is for our good and the good of the world in the moment. Sometimes that’s loving our neighbor, serving, praying, or reading scripture. But sometimes it’s resting, laughing with a friend, making a delicious meal, or sitting on the front porch staring at the sunset. The kingdom is broad and beautiful and everywhere present. And there are all kinds of things that will try to distract us from it.
Now that we are learning how to support one another, let’s encourage each other as we take a look at the sources of distraction in our lives right now.
What kinds of interruptions make up our days? At work? At home? At church? In our “free” time? This week, we’re focusing on the sources of distraction that come from outside, that come into the flow of our day and attempt to grab our attention.
I don’t know about you, but this can be kind of heavy once you start thinking down these lines. Don’t let shame or guilt take the reins here, go back to the Throne of Grace. We’re doing this with other sinners and we’re here to encourage one another in taking small steps. God knows your heart and your desires; let’s take this to him and let’s let him re-align them!
Get out your capture method, go to the reflection section, and jot everything down you can think of. Don’t sort them into good or bad yet, just list them at this point. After you get the easy ones down, keep pressing. Listen to what other people are saying and if they apply to you, put them down in your list.
Once you have them down, set aside a time sometime this week to go through your list prayerfully. Ask God to reveal to you which ones are worth paying attention to and which ones are really just distractions. And then, ask him to guide you in prioritizing the ones that remain. Which ones are in the “important but not urgent” category?
Then comes the harder part. What small steps can you put in place to prune out the ones that you’ve identified as distractions? Something as simple as changing some settings on your phone? Or a new practice for putting your phone out of reach for certain parts of your day? Closing certain apps while working to focus on what’s important? A place to work for a portion of the day that is out of reach for people who might distract you?
Jot these thoughts down in your reflection section, try them out, and then review after a few days. Which ones worked? Which ones need tweaking?
As you try out different things, let your group know with a text. Make sure to pray for one another as we undertake this practice of holy pruning!
REFERENCE
Here’s some additional items related to our discussion.
Stats on American screen time
Why we are better at adding to our lives than subtracting
