When Distraction Becomes An Attraction

By Carllister Ejinkeonye

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an EXPECTED END” – Jeremiah 29:11.

The later part of our opening scripture reveals the fact that there is an expectation, a future glory and a profitable end attached to the life of God's people and that God is willing to walk them into it. Knowing also that there are challenges on that path, He sees to it that these challenges all work together for the good of the individual and to the realization of his ambition and purpose (Romans 8:28).

Naturally, most people begin to dream about what they want to be in life from childhood which gradually manifests in the discussions that usually capture their attention, the choice of or even the ability to develop and use certain children's tools and toys, writings, etc. Where there are family members who are well informed, these children can be helped to channel their potentials aright. Some others discover the hidden treasures in them as they advance from one class to another (from primary to secondary schools), and remain focused, determined and diligent, and their God-ordained purposes are brought to light. Fortunately, every individual has been destined to be special and great in at least one area of life (Matthew 25:14-15). Every youth must, therefore, DISCOVER and ACTIVATE this particular area where he has been naturally endowed to excel, ACTUALIZE and MAXIMISE the opportunities it offers and become a marvelous success story. No youth who has encountered God and His Son and entered into His plan for his life has any business living a purposeless life. If you agree with this, then you should be interested in our discussion today.

We shall be drawing lessons from Genesis 3:1-10, 20-24 which presents us with an interesting account of how an originally designed purposeful and glorious life was ruined because a distraction was allowed to become an attraction.

Here we see a couple given a special duty of dressing and keeping a precious garden and taking care of God's creatures. They were surrounded by all manner of things that were pleasant to the eyes, things that were very attractive and necessary for their well-being. Attending to them was enough task to keep them busy each day. They also had the freedom to explore, discover and enjoy these wonderful provisions in the garden. But there was one thing that was also in that same garden that is of utmost interest to us: the presence of the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. The consequences of eating that particular fruit as we are already aware were damning. Why then was it planted, many may argue?  Well, let's recognize that the all-knowing God planted it and had His reasons for doing so and, of course, such secrets belong to Him (Deuteronomy 29:29). For man, it was sufficient to know that he could eat of every tree in the garden except that tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What God expected of man was to simply comply with an instruction that was very clear and definite.

A closer look at Jesus' prayer towards the end of His ministry for His disciples whom He asked His Father not to take out of the same world where evil people also dwell should suffice us (John.17:14-16). Our major concern however should be on the warning against the forbidden tree and fruit which is still emphasized today in 1John 2:15-17, and every youth who has found himself or herself in the last day's “garden” which contains diverse forbidden fruits must place this warning at the doorpost of his mind all through his/her journey into adulthood (Deuteronomy 6:4-9). The forbidden fruit was a distraction and still is a distraction, but unfortunately these distractions are very prominent and hold a strong appeal for youths today.

It is therefore very necessary that as a young man or woman, you should carefully identify these forbidden fruits and recognize the forces behind them. You are not left to make guesses. The Spirit of God clearly outlined them as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. These were the exact things that pulled Eve to the distraction that ruined her destiny and that of the whole mankind (Genesis 3:4-6). They were the same that brought down Lucifer (Isaiah 14:12-14). Satan tried to introduce the same to Jesus (Matthew 4:8, 9, 5, 6) in order to stop the purpose of His coming to the world (Matthew 1:21; 1John.3:8). The same strategy is still being used to remove youths today from their God-ordained programmes and kill their dreams by making distractions to appear attractive.

The things that make the flesh happy are actually those that dampen the soul, and anyone indulging in them only disconnects himself from anything that has to do with God and godliness (Romans 8:6-8; Galatians 5:17; 1Timothy 5:6). We will look at a few common distractions that are strongly pulling the youth today.

The heavy traffic on social media and networking sites these days should be of serious concern to every sensitive youth. No youth who joins this queue comes out the same, be it through chatting, 'facebooking,' 'downloading' and 'uploading' or unending browsing of whatsoever. At some other time, while attending to things that require their attention or even while walking on the road, the hearts and minds of many young people are occupied with music from their phones. No longer are there moments of quietness for the youth to think and meditate on serious issues that can lead to new helpful ideas to better his future. A reasonable youth can see and realize that there is a serious distraction on the way, and that if he does nothing commensurately serious to counter it, he would discover that without his consent, there would be a replay of all he had discussed, browsed, connected to earlier and soon in his quiet moments he would find himself pulled into revisiting those sites and continuing from where he had stopped in his mind. He is often denied of his sleep and his concentration in class, the church and home is tampered with. His priorities are changed. There are many youths that e-appointments, e-dating, e-relationships and other internet activities have kept continually 'available' on the net – almost 24/7.

Gradually, the innocence of these young minds is contaminated and impurities like immoral and violent inclinations are craftily introduced. Students are to be most pitied on this matter. The undergraduate, in most cases is allowed free access to phones and the internet every moment since it is believed that they are valuable tools he requires to source information for research work and his assignments. As young adults, supervising them as they use these tools is not always considered necessary even when they are on holidays. Even secondary school students now have need of also using the internet to do some assignments and so must browse the net occasionally and often without supervision. How many youths can say they are disciplined enough to concentrate only on the materials essential to the research they are undertaking? How many are able to cancel every enticing window that pops up on their screen while they are attending to the important work they are engaged in on their computers?

Curiosity and craving for knowledge and information often lures the youth into opening and accepting whatever comes up. He only 'wakes' up to find out that he had spent several hours on non-essentials (distractions). Does it end there? No. Oftentimes, one could suddenly find out that one had unconsciously clicked to subscribe to invitations from some websites and of course those sites do a good follow-up on their visitors. Satan's strategy for capturing Eve was to show her once again what she had seen before and when she looked again, this time and under Satan's influence, she saw from another perspective. (Genesis 3:6). The destructive tree became an irresistible attraction. The devil comes to steal, to kill and to destroy (John 10:10). He ensures that the things you carefreely and unconsciously toyed with are replayed in your mind and your senses are sensitized to do whatever it takes (reasonable and unreasonable, consciously or unconsciously) to get back to them.

Consequently, a youth would no longer mind breaking school rules and regulations and going against the structures put in place at home and the church just to satisfy the pull on him by diverse distractions. He is obsessed with them. Dinah, the daughter of Jacob made a visit to a 'forbidden community'. It was supposed to be seen as a serious, dangerous distraction (2Corinthians 6:14-16; 1Corinthians 15:33; 5:6; Proverbs 14:12), but she was unable to see it as such. Initially, she may have been uneasy in the strange, new company she had begun to keep, but as the chatting and new feelings associated with interacting with her new friends in her new environment increased and those activities began to replay in her mind, they constituted a pull to go and satisfy that lust of the flesh (those ungodly and impure desires developed during the outing), the lust of the eyes (those attractive but sinful and improper pleasures she had observed among her new friends) and the pride of life (belonging to the peer group that was the envy of others). The new attraction became the instrument of her undoing. Virtues were lost, righteous motives were overridden, godly purposes were defeated and ambitions were truncated. And today, there is no record of any good purpose achieved through Dinah that can be found anywhere even though she was born into a God-chosen family and was a descendant of the great Abraham. 

These are the consequences when distractions become attractions. Well, if one may ask, why are you in the particular WhatsApp and facebook forum/group you belong to? Who do you tweet to? What are the things that dominate your facebook wall?  What manner of pictures do you post there? How come you have a schedule on the internet that must never be disrupted?

What a distraction that has become an irresistible attraction!

All of a sudden, the restless youth has become calm not because of any salvation experience but because he has been immersed in the world of the internet and become fully engrossed in it. The social media have in so many ways changed the lives of most youths and diverted them from the original plan and purpose designed for them and redirected them to undesirable paths. As subtle as the devil is, there are some youths who do well academically and in whatever vocation they are into, but who are easily confused and mesmerized by unwholesome habits and pursuits through the distraction they have embraced. Unfortunately, youths of any age can be entangled. You can find youths of all ages getting into e-cultism and turning them into crafty, quiet, but violent young people.

Boys who are not even in possession of physical drugs have become high and addicts through e-cigarettes and are facing its consequences. Some are given spiritual tattoos in their dreams and they would wake up to see themselves tracing and making it real on their bodies and introducing same to others. Others have been turned into lesbians and homosexuals with a mandate to engage colleagues in schools or places of work. Some others have become youths who are now the objects of 'admiration' among their peers because of how e-dating has made them rich. Attractions indeed they seem to be, but before our very eyes, we have seen many young people whose lives and destinies were suddenly terminated because of this. Recently, there were reports of how a lady was rushed to the hospital after spending some time with her internet friend who had visited her. She later died and now her internet friend is being detained as a suspect. Not all that glitters indeed is gold.

What do we see and have today? Godly homes having ungodly children, godly churches filled with ungodly youths, godly schools producing ungodly students, etc. The results are provoking. Highly earned reputations of such godly schools are rubbished, good names of families are tarnished and once-sought after churches have become places of taboo and mockery because the youths in those churches have preferred the accursed things!

Young man, young woman, can you imagine yourself being the means of destroying a heritage, removing the ancient landmarks and disconnecting the bridge to victory and breakthroughs? You are a youth of destiny and purpose, you must therefore look before you leap. Reject the devil and his agents' subtle, deceptive interpretation of the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:1-5). The accursed thing remains accursed even if it is hidden among other precious stuff. What happens is that, as a leaven, it would end up leavening the whole lump (Joshua 7:1-12; 1Corinthians 5:6). It would also go ahead to steal, kill and destroy all that God has prepared you to become (Genesis 3:22-24). It may start happening gradually, thereby, making you to think that nothing is wrong, but the standard of God remains sure and His word is what must hold (Ecclesiastes 8:11; Proverbs 11:21; 2Timothy 2:19).

Though the intention of the enemy is to sift you in order to remove every good thing in you, the Lord wills that you should have life and every good thing that goes with it in abundance (John 10:10). So, have you in anyway become obsessed and entangled with any form of distraction from peers, social media, networking sites, etc?  Have you gone as far as negotiating an e-relationship or struck some internet friendships that have so much engaged you now that all you do during the holidays is to locate these friends, exchange visits and get yourself into immoral adventures? 

You can be loosed from such yokes. Are you down in the valley of academic failure because of these distractions or lost the ability to concentrate on your studies? You can be picked up from that dungeon, and be set on the pinnacle of success again. The destroyed bridge to your God-ordained destiny can be rebuilt and your purpose of existence would be reclaimed (Joel 2:23-25). Though the devils through these distractions came to steal, kill and destroy, but thank God that there is a chance for recovery through Jesus our Lord, the promised Seed of the woman, to give you not just life, but abundant life (Genesis 3:14-15; John 10:10). Only cry out today in repentance unto the Lord our God and open your heart to let Him in and help shall come unto you, and rescue and recovery work will be done in your life (Revelations 10:10). God will set you on the path of youths with a purpose.

Every youth should beware because when distractions are allowed to become attractions, the consequences are unimaginable and could be eternally damnable.