On Distraction
“…on his law he meditates day and night.” ~Psalm 1:2b
Have you ever been driving and suddenly realized you're farther along your route than you thought? What I mean is, you look around and can’t quite recall the last half hour of the trip. It’s as though you had zoned out and autopilot took over, bringing you thirty more miles down the road. Sometimes this happens when we walk into a room and think, “Now, what did I come in here for?” Chalk it up to age if you want — and perhaps in some cases age is the culprit — but I think a bigger issue is that we are so used to intentionally distracting ourselves that we’ve lost the ability to concentrate.
People walk around stores with music playing in their headphones. They turn the TV on just to have noise in the background. They start a project or a book or a thought only to be distracted by something else — another thought, a sound, a movement in the periphery. We have lost the ability to sit in undistracted meditation.
The word meditate, which David uses in Psalm 1:2, means to mutter under one’s breath while pondering. It is, in other words, intentional, active, engaged thinking about a topic — in the case of Psalm 1:2, the law of the Lord contained in His Word. But we mustn’t think that the goal is to simply think a lot about some topic, as if the point of spiritual contemplation is just to become more spiritually contemplative. Rather, we are aiming for heart transformation, as is the case in all matters of sanctification.
How then should our hearts be transformed in light of our pursuit of undistracted meditation on God’s good Word? The psalmist has much more to say. Elsewhere he tells us that the very Word upon which we meditate will become sweet to our taste, even sweeter than honey (Psalm 119:103). When it becomes so sweet to us, we will want to hoard it — to store it up (Psalm 119:11) — like finding your favorite food on sale and buying out the store so you never run out.
Ultimately, the picture we see is one of worship and delight (Psalm 1:2). Meditating upon God’s Word is really meditation upon God Himself, as He is the main character in the Bible’s story. When we lay aside unnecessary distractions, we find ourselves more able to spend time with the One in whom we most delight, thus increasing our experience of the sweetness of the Word. It all works together in the life of the believer to increase our desire to pursue undistracted meditation.
Are you easily distracted? Do you find yourself bopping along to your own personal soundtrack but never quieting your mind to spend time with the Word of life? Scripture encourages undistracted meditation — not the filling of silence with noise, but filling your heart with conscious, continuous, attentive engagement with God as He’s revealed in His Word, that we might worship Him more.
Rev. Kyle Lockhart, Pastor of Teaching & Spiritual Formation