Earlier this week I went to a training event in north Georgia. As soon as I left Richmond Hill and got on I-95, the traffic began to back up.
My first thought was that there must be a wreck in the lanes ahead of me, but when I crawled for about two miles, I soon realized that it was because of a wreck on the other side of the interstate.
As the cars got close to the wreck, the natural tendency of the drivers was to slow down and see what was going on at the wreck site. The problem was that it kept backing up the traffic behind them so that it finally came to a crawl at best. The reason for the slow down was that these people were distracted by the event in the other lanes.
As I thought about this incident, my mind went to some spiritual lessons to be learned.
We all have a purpose and a plan from God as we travel down the road of life. The goal is to keep moving in the direction the Lord has called us to. The problem is that we can be easily distracted from what we are supposed to do.
These distractions not only affect us, but they affect many others as well. Sin is the greatest distraction that gets us off course, and there are consequences for us. But also many times these consequences spill over into others’ lives.
One illustration is the sin of adultery, where the consequences might include losing one’s spouse and losing respect from family and friends. But it can also affect one’s relationship with God until confession and forgiveness takes place. Others are affected by this sin through the hurt inflicted upon the spouse and children, as well as those who are looking for a good witness for Christ.
The best way to not get distracted is to get into the practice or habit of following the Holy Spirit who is faithful to convict us and to guide us into all truth.