Nude Karaoke was the first sign I saw as I walked up Printers’ Alley in Nashville on my way to a bar where Etta and Bob were playing. I was a little stunned by the sign having never imagined such a thing, until then.
“Don’t you want to come in?” said a slouched over man on a stool. He was wearing a once white t-shirt that also once fit. “This is a good place for a guy like you,” he said. I smiled wondering, ‘what did he mean, like me?’ He added his next sales pitch pointing to the door in case I was wondering how to go in, “We got nudes.” My uncontrollable imagination then gave me a brief image of a bar full of men identical to the man on the stool, naked and singing.
“No, thanks,” I said walking onward. A few others spoke to me from different doorways inviting me to come in, but I did not stop and only walked faster remembering my destination.
I am easily distracted. When we moved The Moment worship to a sanctuary in downtown Franklin, Tennessee, the noises from the nearby intersection brought a different set of distractions as we prepared our hearts and minds for worship. The most consistent noise was the automated crossing signals as they beep to let the visually impaired know it’s okay to cross. When it is not okay, there is a repetitive, “Wait.” “Wait.” “Wait.” Before our first service, I put up a sign by hammering poles and stakes into the ground. While hammering the first pole into the ground, I heard the voice saying, “Wait.” “Wait.” I thought it was God and so it took me a half an hour to get the first pole in the ground.
Some distractions come into our lives challenging our inner peace but most distractions we choose. Some nude karaokees may be devilish temptations, or at least shocking distractions, but most are in essence, ‘good things’. As Jim Collins describes in Good to Great, often it’s good that can be the greatest barrier to great. Most life choices are not between good or bad but good and better. C.S. Lewis wrote The Screwtape Letters about a senior level demon writing to a lesser demon with advice on temptation. In one letter, he writes about how a simple distraction can tempt us away from significant moments.
I was once in charge of tempting a fellow who used to go into the British Museum to read. One day as he was sitting and reading, he had a train of thought that concerned me. The Spirit of God was at his elbow in a moment, before my eyes I could see twenty years of work on this fellow tottering on the brink. I had to think fast. I almost lost my head and tried to counter argue with the thoughts the Spirit was putting in his head. But I came up with a better plan. I struck out at the part of the man that was under my control. I invaded his mind with this suggestion, “Isn’t it about time to eat? Remember that little deli around the corner? Don’t they have a great roast beef? It will be much better to think about this with a fresh mind, after you get something to eat.” That was all it took.
List your distractions noting even the ‘good’ things which can draw you away from the ‘great’.
