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Yesterday morning, I went for a walk just after sunrise. It’s that time of year in Kentucky when mornings allow you to wear your oversized sweatshirt and shorts. Yet, by lunch you need short sleeves and shade. As I typically do when I go for a run or a walk, I opened my podcast app on my phone and selected something to listen to. It helps me feel productive – accomplishing two things at one time.

For this walk I picked a sermon to listen to, being Sunday and all. But, as I put my phone in my waistband (woes of pocketless shorts), I saw a deer up ahead. I immediately got my phone back out, opened my camera app, and tried to take a picture. What good is seeing a deer if other people can’t see that I saw a deer. Nearly 1/4 of a way through my first mile, I’ve been holding a device and fed by distractions.

The camera app turned off the podcast and I didn’t realize it until I had repositioned my phone at my waist. As I started to reach for my phone to press play on my podcast, I realized the noise I craved didn’t come from an app – that was a distraction. Instead, I craved heavenly noise and worldly silence.

What Feeds our Distractions?

Drew Hill shares a summary of a one act play in his book, Alongside. In it, a girl named Sally distracts herself from challenges with headphones and dark glasses. The enemy appears and gives Sally headphones, telling her to use them to stay distracted to avoid pain. The enemy then gives her dark glasses to tint her perspective on the world around her. Jesus enters the picture:

Jesus then removes her headphones. “Here, let me take some of the busyness from you. It only keeps you from hearing me. You see, I came to give hearing to the deaf. Sally, let me remove these glasses from you. They distort your vision and keep you from seeing me as I really am. I came to give sight to the blind.”

Drew Hill, Alongside, pages 2-3

Know a Sally in your classroom? Keep scrolling to the end.

Reading scripture, I often struggle to feel connected to the stories about those healed from deafness and blindness. The parables on the lost and lonely pull closer because of my personal experiences. I get the metaphor of being blind or deaf spiritually, but mostly as I reflect on how distant those stories feel, I’m shocked to realize I connect more with a story about a lost sheep than a deaf man. If that is the case, it seems I’m missing a bigger picture.

Quiet time as an idea pushes me. I don’t naturally enjoy sitting in stillness. The world tells me it isn’t productive, but in the right time, stillness is the perfect antidote. I justify loudness in my quiet time by selecting podcasts that are Christian themed or are sermons and listening to worship music. While I know God can use anything at anytime, I realized in reading about Sally how deaf and distracted I’ve become in my day-to-day habits.

What needs to change?

So, first, I need to repent for continuing to feed the distractions.

Next, I need to consider how this changes my behavior. It does not mean I plan on never listening to music or podcasts as I walk, run, or drive to work. Instead, I need to remember how my worth doesn’t find value in the amount of content consumed. I’ve written about this before. Taking a walk is sufficient, I don’t need to over-spiritualize the experience, but instead find freedom in His mercy. A difference exists between distracted and disciplined – I am working on living in discipline…not distraction. Finally, I need to ask first. Day-to-day routine becomes an easy trap for failing to ask, what’s next? If we can glorify God in all things, I want to do so down to what is, or isn’t, streaming through my phone.

What about Sally?

Do you read about Sally and immediately think of a student (or several) in your classroom? Constantly distracted by busyness, be it headphones or sports teams? The thief comes to kill, steal, and destroy and with busyness – so much damage happens. We need to fight for our the Sally in our life and what that looks life will vary based upon the need.

• Silence the lies of abandonment
• Calm the anxiousness of self-doubt
• Eliminate the need to do more in order to be enough
• Remove the noise of shame to make room for praise
• Shine brightly, so much so it overcomes event the dark glasses

College students today struggle to overcome the distracted nature of today’s world. The ability to ease into distraction…it’s everywhere! Want to binge watch every episode of your favorite tv show? Done. Avoiding the awkward silence of standing in line? Phones come with ear buds and room to hold your favorite music. Driving to the weekend hangout? Your podcast will stream directly to your car speakers. Walking to class, don’t want to talk to anyone? Headphones in. Yet, I can’t help but acknowledge…these are some of my habits, too.

Dear teacher friends, what do you find yourself deaf and distracted in your classroom or in your life? Take time this week to consider any noise you could eliminate and seek time in worldly silence for the sake of heavenly noise.