Pastor Chuck Lawrence was once quoted as saying.
If the enemy cannot destroy the DREAM…
He will try and DISTRACT the DREAMER
How true these words really are, more than most of us know or willing to believe, including me.
We each are gifted to run our race, pressing toward the goal and prize for which God has called every one of us.
I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:14 NIV
We are not to be distracted by turning to the left or right, but fixing our gaze and eyes straight ahead, continuing to stay in our lane for which we are called.
25Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you.
26Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways.
27Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.
Proverbs 4:25-27 NIV
But that is the strategy of the enemy. He knows he is rendered powerless to destroy our God given dream, so the enemy will unpack his arsenal of distractions to lure us from the straight and narrow path we are called to run in and lead us down the detours of the left and right.
The enemy is a liar and a deceiver. He enticed and distracted Eve with an apple in the garden she was forbidden to eat by God; something so delicious to her eyes, she couldn’t help herself and fell into his trap. (Genesis 3)
The enemy’s distractions are unique to each of us; our job is to follow God’s plan of our calling, looking neither to the left or right and becoming increasingly aware of his distractions.
Looking back through the pages of my personal journal of writing, I realize I indeed have played into the enemy’s hand of distraction to my dream.
I became enticed at an early elementary age with my love affair with words. I felt God’s calling to write, however that would look, yet not having a mentor to guide me in my innocent years would prove to be a stumbling block for me and an open door to the enemy’s distractions.
Poetry and short stories were my favorite and couldn’t wait to hand in my work to the teachers during our creative writing sessions. Yet to my confusion, I began receiving F’s written in bright red markers on my papers, charging me with coping and plagiarizing some other author’s work.
An elementary age girl in tears does not know how to handle such rejection, nor does she realize the enemy sent a distraction of giving up on writing after receiving these failing grades on her poetry and short stories.
This first distraction didn’t detour me from writing though, as my love for God and the special dream He had planted in my heart and my love affair for words were stronger.
Many years would go by, yet I continued to compose poetry inside greeting cards, but that was the extent of it as I married and had two small children to rear.
But later in my thirties, I decided to take a leap of faith and offer my column writing skills to the family section of a local 10,000 subscription newspaper, for which they accepted. I couldn’t believe the open door of opportunity I was granted, yet this door would close eight months later.
Another distraction of rejection from the enemy to say, “I didn’t have what it takes to write.” Another lie from the enemy, because God has gifted us perfectly, so we should cast aside the doubts of our inadequacy or “not good enough” attitude, as God has packed our tool-belt of talents according to our ability, which should bring us comfort to know God has called us and placed a dream in our hearts to run with passion and win the prize.
And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability…
Matthew 25:15 KJV
Always remember the lure of the enemy’s distractions can play to our desires, as the apple did to Eve in the garden.
Years ago, the distraction of Event Decorating enticed me to leave my lane of writing, causing me veer to the left for the next two decades. I was always aware of the pen calling me back home to pick it back up again to write, but my love for glitter and glam of decorating tables kept me terribly distracted, even though I knew my dream awaited me with an undivided heart.
I couldn’t do both.
My writing didn’t stop during this twenty-year period of distraction though, as I was faithful for over six years to author this blog, yet I always knew these were mere crumbs to the full meal God wanted me to prepare for my readers.
This February of 2024 was a defining moment for me when God lovingly displayed himself in a tangible way back to the pen and paper of writing.
Having coffee with a dear friend at our favorite place in town, she revealed how God wanted me to have this check now held in her hands, to replace the computer He already knew was holding its last breath of life and replace it to begin writing those books I wanted to leave as part of my legacy.
My friend had no idea about the health of my computer, yet God did and confirmed that wonderful dream again He revealed to me as an elementary child.
To have an undivided heart in writing, I had to leave the detour of my distraction of Event Decorating, giving away any reminders, including all glitter and glam.
This was freeing and I was ready.
Lord, forgive me for wasting so much time down this path of distraction.
My brand-new computer arrived but not without another distraction from the enemy, a distraction and challenge in my health.
Severe back pain and digestive issues I have never experienced before in my six decades of life, makes it terribly painful to sit for more than minutes at a time. While under doctor and chiropractor care, healing is at a snails pace.
Do I give into the enemy’s distraction of pain and stop writing as that is his strategy, or do I persevere in my calling as the following Pastor did in his distraction of pain, a testimony I heard on a Focus on the Family broadcast many years prior.
In January of 1990, Pastor Duane Miller of a Baptist congregation in Brenham, Texas, full of calling to preach and sing at his small church in Texas, awoke with the flu, making it painful to speak and breathe, as if someone had a grip on his throat. Eventually the flu disappeared, but his voice was reduced to a raspy whisper, rendering him unable to preach and sing, leaving him no other option but to resign from his congregation in Brenham, Texas.
Over the next three years, Miller was examined by 63 physicians, each giving him a prognosis to recover of zero.
Because of Miller’s inability to speak, he was unable to work in the private sector, and insurance stopped covering his treatments, leaving him thousands of dollars in medical bills.
During this time, Miller’s former Sunday school class at First Baptist Church of Houston asked him to teach their class, raspy voice and all, as a special love for their Pastor and his teaching, who missed him terribly.
Undistracted with his voice, Pastor Duane continued to follow his passion to teach. How interesting on one particular Sunday school class, Pastor Duane was preaching on healing.
During the scratching teaching of his lesson, Pastor Duane received a miracle from God with a complete healing of his voice, which returned to him in front of the class. This miracle can be heard in real time on the audio.
The class erupted in tears and song for the miracle the Lord had just performed, giving all glory and honor to God.
We each have a choice to live undistracted and focus on the prize set before us. Or waste time of years and decades to the enticements of the distractions set before us.
I was blessed a few weeks ago to hear Megan Tibbits play the harp on social media to the song she authored titled, Undistracted.
Her song is an anthem to all runners in the race of their calling, to run Undistracted, finishing the work we each have been called to complete.
Megan Tibbits
Song Undistracted
(a few words of the lyrics)
Verse 2
So I will lift my eyes and focus
Focus on the prize
Finishing the work that I, I started in the world surprise,
The small, small beginning.
Chorus
So I will choose to live
Undistracted…
At the end of the day, one must beg the question,
“What is the enemy so afraid of that he constantly bombards our paths with distractions?”
Because he doesn’t want us to complete our assignment, our calling, our God given dream and make a difference in the lives of others, giving all the glory back to God.
These distractions have never been about us, but about magnifying and illuminating the majesty of our wonderful God, for which the enemy can’t stand.
So, in the midst of our distractions, we still have power over the enemy when calling on Jesus’ name.
We are called to submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee. Amen!
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
James 4:7 NIV
Hollis caught me off guard in our last hug together at the airport when he genuinely spoke from a little boy’s heart, “Gaga, thank you for the Christmas dinner, it was so delicious.”
Oh, that we long to be a bright light for Jesus in the window of hope for those deeply discouraged this Christmas.
We’ve all laced up our shoes at the first of the year at least once in our lives, haven’t we?
We’re going to triumph and finally claim our medal this time.
The close of 2023 is mere weeks away and I’m still running, I’m still writing, but the finish line must be close as the rock concert of spectators is cheering ever so loudly for my encouragement.