About a year ago I was in a small group of guys working through the ScrewTape Letters by C.S. Lewis. In one of the letters there is a story about a man in a museum. The man is looking at the art while eating his turkey sandwhich. A demon, thinking he had the man well in hand was directing the mans thoughts from one painting to another and away from anything important. Then the man began to think about the other people in the room and about God. The demon immediately reacted to what it presumed was the presence of an angel speaking into the man's life on God's behalf. So the demon diverted the man's attention to the man's lunch, to the weather outside, and finally to a random story in the newspaper. All of these diversions were the demon's way of putting the man off thinking about God. In America we get so distracted by stuff, material possessions, or perhaps worse reality TV. I know. I've been guilty of it as well. Wouldn't it be nice to have a new car that doesn't break down? Wouldn't it be nice to have a new brush pen for inking? Wouldn't it be nice to have that latest translation of the Bible or the newest commentary. Stuff Stuff Stuff. We think about you too much.
Chapter seven of Jan Johnson's book Enjoying the Presence of God is about focusing on what's right in front of you, and I don't mean your computer. Who are those people right in front of us who could be helped by God's grace right now? Can't think of anyone? Who else is in the room, or your office, or your house? Try thinking about what they are going through and offering them a one line prayer. "Praying for whatever is in front of us includes praying while reading the newspaper or watching the news (Johnson 51)." When we hear gossip it is an opportunity to pray for the person who told us the gossip and to pray for those being gossiped about. When we stop thinking about the things we want and start focusing on what and who other people need it goes a long way toward bringing us closer to the presence of God.
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