It’s never been easier to become distracted. Our smartphones and computers put the world at our fingertips – which is tremendously powerful, but also a great temptation. Added to this, our wealthy society has opened up more time for leisure than our ancestors could have imagined. This lifestyle now seems perfectly normal, an unquestioned part of life. But living as faithful and diligent Christians in this environment requires us to be thoughtful and to consider the ways in which these influences might work against our calling to daily discipleship and spiritual growth.

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These challenges are nothing new. Even the earliest Christians needed some prodding to keep on track. In Thessalonica there were some who were idle who Paul calls ‘busybodies’ (2 Thessalonians 3:6–13). Finding nothing meaningful with which to occupy themselves, they bustled about getting involved in other people’s business. They were active, but not productive — all heat no light.

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Paul warned Timothy about similar behaviour. It was particularly a problem for young widows, ‘being idle and going about from house to house … but also busybodies who talk nonsense, saying things they ought not to.’ (1 Timothy 5:11–14). Their free time allowed them to indulge their worst tendencies. A form of idleness was also a problem for those in the church who were wealthy (1 Timothy 6:17–19). They were arrogant and self-satisfied, which led them to be aloof and unwilling to share or to
get involved.

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Although these things were written in a different time, it’s easy to see parallels to our own situation. By world standards, we in Australia are rich and comfortable. We too might feel we can take it easy and retreat into our own comfortable world. Our social media feeds are filled with nonsense. Have you ever found yourself getting involved in something that didn’t concern you, or saying things you ought not to? Consider the mindless ‘slop’ that we’re fed on TV streaming services in the name of entertainment which only needs to hold enough interest for us to not click away. Whatever our situation, we all face the same temptation to idleness and meaningless activity.

 

Paul’s prescription was the same for each person: Get busy doing something useful with your time. Find something good and worthwhile to commit yourself to – earning a living, raising a family, helping others – and do it diligently. That’s the kind of person God wants us to be. It’s not exactly revolutionary wisdom, but we really need to hear it.

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Sure, you might say: But I’m not like that – I keep busy. That’s good! But I think we should be careful not to let ourselves off too easily. If we’re not alert to it, we can overlook the ways in which our culture’s preference for comfort and leisure can affect our own mindset. Do you see leisure as your driving motivation, the marker of a good life? Do you try to get away with the bare minimum, or are you willing to go the extra mile (Matthew 5:41)? How much time do you spend in virtual worlds that have no connection to reality?

Of course, we all need time to rest. We need down time, fun times with family and friends, unstructured time. But I think the greatest danger of idleness and distraction isn’t that we put off tasks that need to be done, it’s that we fail to give our attention to the things that really matter. With all our distractions, even our down time isn’t really restful. We bounce around from one thing to another with little sense of purpose. It’s in this way that laziness or idleness begins to have wider spiritual implications. The cost of idleness isn’t just lost productivity but the kind of people it trains us to be. If, through negligence, we train our minds to give in to all the little distractions around us, how can we hope to avoid the things that distract us from what is truly important? If we train ourselves to always take the easy path, how will we be able to withstand trials or temptations?

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Paul described his Christian life like a race for which he needed to be in strict training (1 Corinthians 9:24–27). Training is more than just activity – it’s all about building change by small steps, so that you’ll be ready when the real thing comes along. Little distractions might not seem like much, but even those small moments give us the opportunity to train ourselves and to develop the self-control that we’ll need one day when we’re truly tested. This is how we grow spiritually.

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Jesus warned about those who, like seed sown among thorns, ‘are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature’ (Luke 8:14). Take warning from that passage: That will be you if you allow yourself to become lazy and distracted from your true, God-given purpose.