Guarding our Attention
This is the third post in an eight-part series looking at the rhythm of going to ‘a quiet place.’ I hope and pray it’s a blessing for your life in Christ!
The power of our attention.
The Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset once said, “Tell me what you pay attention to and I will tell you who you are.”
What we give our attention to reveals what we value. As theologian G.K Beale put it, ‘What people revere, they resemble, either for ruin or for restoration.’
In biblical language, it’s what the Psalmist refers to when speaking about worshipping idols, suggesting that ‘those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.’ (Psalm 135:18)
For good or for bad, what we prioritise and gaze upon regularly—the things we give our attention to—form us in more ways than we know.
The danger of distraction.
The reality is, often we fall into distraction and our attention is consumed by unimportant things. In an important article New York Times article from 2016 titled ‘I Used to be a Human Being’, journalist Andrew Sullivan wrote;
‘Modernity slowly weakened spirituality, by design and accident, in favor of commerce; it downplayed silence and mere being in favor of noise and constant action. The reason we live in a culture increasingly without faith is not because science has somehow disproved the unprovable, but because the white noise of secularism has removed the very stillness in which it might endure or be reborn…
If churches came to understand that the greatest threat to faith is not hedonism but distraction, perhaps they might begin to appeal anew to a frazzled digital generation.’
The call of Christ.
The air we breathe is distraction. Our attention is fought for daily. And if you’re like me—sometimes it’s overwhelming.
At the heart of following Christ is the call to lose our lives and find it in him. And that’s impossible to do if our attention isn’t focused on Jesus, but instead on our notifications, marketing that fills our screens, and the worries of life.
Life is full and often busy. It’s sometimes reality. But too often the sacrifice we make is devoting our attention to Christ. It’s why the account we get Mark 6:31-47 is so striking; Jesus is up all night praying because it’s legit the only time he can find. Sometimes life is chaotic—Jesus experienced it. But he never sacrificed going to the quiet place to pray and focus his attention on his relationship with God.
Preserving our attention.
How do we preserve our attention for the sake of Jesus? We look at the example of Jesus repeatedly returning to the eremos—the quiet place in the wilderness—and create time to do the same.
We all have jobs, study, or family responsibilities we need to be faithful with. But we also all have surplus time we waste and could devote some of it to focusing our attention on Jesus.
Here’s a simple exercise you could do to take stock of where your attention goes: spend a week intentionally recording where you spend your free time. Your phone will tell you your screen time for you, but tally up time watching T.V, reading, or other activities you do on your own. Then, consider how you can redirect some of that time towards finding a quiet place and meeting with Jesus the following week!
