The Paradox Of Distraction

By Pastor Oliver B.J. ArcherJune

“Faith Matters” is a column that features pieces written by local religious figures.

In his book Four Thousand Weeks, Oliver Burkeman highlights that at the height of the 2016 presidential race, over three million people watched two BuzzFeed reporters wrap rubber bands around a watermelon. After 44 minutes and 686 rubber bands, the watermelon exploded. The reporters high-fived, ate watermelon, and that was that. The problem is that no one wakes up in the morning thinking, “I want to spend 44 minutes of my life watching a watermelon explode.”

One viewer wrote, “I want to stop watching so bad, but I am already committed.” Another wrote, “I’ve been watching you guys put rubber bands around a watermelon for 40 minutes. What am I doing with my life?” This story reminds us of the modern challenge of distraction.

What holds your attention? According to psychologist Timothy Wilson, we are able to consciously attend to only 0.0004 percent of all the information bombarding our minds at any given moment. If that’s the case, we ought to be deliberate about what we pay attention to. Yet in the internet age, social media platforms engineer digital distractions to get us to click their ads. We certainly want to learn how to limit our distractions so that we can accomplish more of our goals and achieve our dreams—or do we? Is every distraction an enemy?

The paradox is that distraction is necessary for life. Without the ability to be distracted, you couldn’t attend to emergencies like a baby crying or an out-of-control car speeding toward you. As a matter of human survival, distraction is indispensable. More than that, we wouldn’t notice the unexpected rainbow after a rainy day or the beauty of a sunset. The very capacity that allows us to notice danger also allows us to notice beauty.

If God designed human attention this way, perhaps distraction is not merely a flaw in our nature but part of His design. In fact, Scripture repeatedly shows God using interruptions to redirect people’s attention. Moses was tending sheep when a burning bush diverted his attention. The Magi found a star that would not stay still and followed it to the Christ child. Sometimes God gets our attention not by reinforcing our focus but by redirecting it.

Our attempts to keep from being distracted may ironically be misplaced. Consider that the only tool we have for managing our attention is attention itself. It is as though we are asking a chisel to sharpen itself—a doubtful prospect at best. We can never remove distraction completely, nor would we want to. Of course, most distractions take us away from productive pursuits. However, our striving to produce may not always lead to human flourishing. We often assume that whatever makes us more productive automatically makes us better off. Yet some of life’s greatest blessings—friendship, worship, wonder, and love—rarely appear on a to-do list.

In Psalm 19:1, the psalmist proclaims, “The heavens keep telling the wonders of God, and the skies declare what He has done” (CEV). God, through His handiwork, offers us holy distractions that draw our attention toward Him. Let the beauty of a sunset interrupt your anxiety. Let the laughter of your children take your mind away from the stresses of your job. Let gratitude for every breath interrupt your feelings of inadequacy. Some distractions do not pull us away from life; they call us back to it. Perhaps the greatest tragedy is not that we are distracted too often, but that we are distracted by things too small. Instead of getting rid of all distractions, allow better things—the things of God—to distract you.

Oliver B.J. Archer is pastor of Mount Zion SDA Church in Hamden.