Distraction

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Welcome to The Masculine Journey. We are glad to have you with us this week. And I know you think that we probably practice and we have all this deep discussion about what we're going to say.

And there are times, I mean, we do talk about what we're going to say, but Robby, I didn't ask you this question before the show, but this is a very important eve. Again? Yeah. It is. Yeah.

Do you know what it is? It's Valentine's. It is Valentine's Day Eve. So as a public service announcement, guys, if you haven't bought your significant other something now, your kids, your wife, whatever, girlfriend, hopefully not wife and girlfriend, go out and get it. You got one more day, but not right now. Wait for an hour and then go out and do it. It's a Saturday, so hopefully you got time to go. Yeah.

I always take a week and buy it after Valentine's Day when it's half price. Don't get distracted, but we will save your bacon on this show. We will save your bacon.

Exactly. So you have, if you haven't gotten it and it applies to you, make sure you go do it today. Don't wait till tomorrow.

Don't wait till the last minute. Right. What we're going to talk about today? Oh yeah, that's right. We're going to talk about distraction, right?

And Danny, you have a great clip that kind of talks about this topic of distraction. Yes. From the Lion King and the, just to set it up is the hyenas are in their way to get wherever they're going and they have to create a distraction. So Timon and Pumbaa get recruited to put on a little show while they slip around the hyenas. So that's, that's kind of what's going on.

So this would be an example potentially of a good distraction. Yes. Okay.

So let's listen to it and we'll come back and talk about it. Hyenas. I hate hyenas. So what's your plan for getting past those guys? Live beat. Good idea. Hey, come on Timon. You guys have to create a diversion. What do you want me to do?

Dress and drag and do the hula? If you're hungry for a hunk of fat and juicy meat, eat my buddy Pumbaa here because he has a dream. Coming down a dine on a stacy swine.

All you have to do is get in line. Yup, yup, yup. For some bacon. Yup, yup, yup. He's a big pig. Yup, yup.

You can be a big pig too. It just makes me laugh. It's a funny clip. Yeah.

It is. So in that situation, you brought the clip to us. You gotta explain it. You know how the program works. Well, I've been distracted. I'm sorry. Okay. No, it's a good example of sometimes you do need distractions in your life that are good.

But what we're going to talk about today is both sides of the equation. We're going to talk about times that the enemy tries to distract you, which is all the time. Honestly, you know, try to do any type of internet search on an innocent topic. And I promise you, you won't get more than a couple links down below and you're going to find a really bad website that it's going to want to try to lead you to. Right? I mean, everything is captured that take you to a distraction.

If you've, if you've looked up anything on the internet, as far as trying to shop, just look at your, the side little thing when you're on Facebook or one of the other social medias, it's always going to have advertisements for those things. It's the life is full of distraction. Andy, what do you think you're on the line? Are we distracting you? Oh, shoot.

I was taking a nap. Yeah. The benefits of calling in.

Yeah. I mean, distraction. Um, I really, I've always really kind of struggled with that. And this is why is, you know, there are a lot of different ways you could be distracted personally. For example, I feel like I usually used to give attention way too much attention and probably still do to some degree about sport.

You know, it can be, it could be nice to kind of escape, but it could be a distraction from the things that God really wants us to give attention to. But another, another way that I felt like I really became distracted all through my life is I worked in an it job and it wasn't something you'd go in and sit down at your desk and you'd just work on a project and that's all you would focus on. I was constantly dealing with problems and those distractions repetitively, I think kind of wired my brain to always be ready for that, but yet in a good way to be able to handle things like that. But it also prevented me from ever giving things that do attention and focus that they needed to. And I think it affected my relationships and affected other things because, you know, God is all about getting our attention and he wants our undivided attention. When we sit down with our family, when if you're looking over at your phone or doing something else and not giving them the due attention they deserve, you know, that can cause problems.

So, you know, it's something I've tried to work on and I can't say that I've mastered it, but it is definitely something that God has distracted me with, brought my attention to that I need to work on. I'm sorry, Andy, can you repeat that? I was looking at my phone. I went over, I went over two minutes.

No, no, that's a great point. You know, I realized, you know, years ago when I was married that I could either watch TV or I could listen to my wife. I could not do both at the same time. And so if she wanted to talk, I literally would have to not just turn the volume down, but turn the TV off so that I could actually listen to what she to what she had to say, because it was very quick to, especially if sports were on, I mean, Andy, you hit that right on the head that if sports were on, I don't have to have sound.

I can look and see what's going on, you know, and that's not necessarily a good distraction in that, in that timeframe like you're talking about. And so what are all restaurants do? They put those DAGM TVs all over. And my wife is like got, I don't know, whatever x-ray vision. What are you looking at? You know, it used to be the girl at the next table. Now it's the TV.

So is there some game on that you're looking at? You know, it's just, you know, and it's offensive, but I'll be dead gum if you can stand there and just watch. And then all of a sudden, you know, boy, that looked like a good shot.

It does, you know, and it would be the point. And I've learned Robby, as you talk about it back in the day, when we went to restaurants, it seems like such a foreign thing these days to talk about other than on a very special occasion, going to a restaurant, but I would have to sit with my back to the TV. Otherwise, I just knew that I was not going to be engaged. You know, there was going to be a point where I would check out.

There would be a silence and I was gone. Well, if even that far, honestly, if I'm going to be honest about it, I'm going to go ahead and play another clip because it is it is the clip that really we thought about first for the show, when we said, Hey, we're going to do a show on distraction. This is the clip that was thrown out there. And it's from the movie up. And if you haven't seen the movie up, it's about an older man who loses his wife and decide decides to go on an adventure that he had always promised her that he was going to have with her, you know, they were going to do together.

And he decided he's going to go do that anyway. And he gets somebody that comes along with him, this little Boy Scout, that get kind of holds up in his house, he gets all these balloons, hooks them to his house, and the house flies away. But the little Boy Scouts on his front porch, he doesn't know it. And they land in this other land. And they're looking around and they're seeing some things in the shadows, you some rocks that look like a turtle, another set of rocks that look like a dog that ended up being a dog.

So let's listen to how that plays out. My name is Doug. I have just met you.

And I love you. My master made me this collar. He is a good and smart master. And he made me this collar so that I may talk squirrel. My master is good and smart. It's possible. Oh, it is because my master is smart.

Cool. All throughout the movie, if you haven't seen the movie, you've probably heard people say squirrel and not known the reference. And so if you haven't seen the movie, that's that's really what the references every time Doug's in the middle of something very, very important. There's a squirrel that comes along his peripheral vision. And he's completely lost for at least another five or 10 seconds. And then he picks up where he goes. And that's how the enemy takes us out. He tries to get us to have the squirrel moments. Right that you know, yeah, I'm really in tune to this conversation. My buddy Jim's talking to me about boom, squirrel, you know, something on my phone, I got to look at whatever that is. Those squirrel moments is really what he's trying to do is to get us taken out. Just try to pray.

And we're going to talk about that after the break. But you know, just sitting down and trying to pray. Jim laughed at me before the show is because I have a habit. I don't really say anything to the guys, but I close my eyes before the right before the last 30 seconds or so before the show comes on. And I pray and I have a little prayer that I say each time and I was praying with my eyes closed and lean forward to hit my face right on the microphone. Right in the middle of my prayer, you know, so it was interrupted for a minute that I went back to it. But that was that was a microphone squirrel moment is how we would call that. So Jim, I wouldn't be admitting that on the radio. Yeah, yeah, you would have enjoyed that, Andy. See what happens when you're not here.

And by the third time you're calling only, don't you get on the reserve list or something injured reserve? Yeah, I think I'm there. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Are we going to see you next week in studio? Are you going to make the proclamation now so we can hold you to it next week?

Possibly unless I get distracted. Okay, good call. Remember, we did that show on truth.

The whole truth and nothing but that's right. And that is our network. So yeah. So this topic of distraction, am I the only one that feels it, guys?

Honestly? No, it's it's an every day, like every day in my entire life, I sit down and go, okay, today's the day. Today's the day I'm going to pray without ceasing. 20 seconds later, tomorrow's going to be the day. You know, it's just it's always something we hope we could do. And I'm thinking someday I might actually but who knows?

Yeah, maybe a really short day. I was thinking about as we were talking, you know, Andy, you're talking about your your profession. And in what I do in building houses, I for a while was a trainer. And one of the things I had to really work with people on the training was to ignore the distractions. Because all day long, until you're building 1015 houses, even if they're all in the same community, you have people working in those different houses, and they all want your time. And so you have a set agenda to get done for the day. But you also have to make sure they get their stuff done, you know, but you can get eat up by their time. You know, and what I used to coach him to do is wait, you know, they'll call you and say, Yeah, I'll be down there in about 1520 minutes. And you'll be surprised how many times when you get down there in 15 or 20 minutes, they've already figured out the answer. Right, but I can spend my day running back and forth if I'm not careful to the distractions and never get things done.

And I think that's part of it is how to overcome distractions. We're going to talk about that when we come back. Go to masculine journey.org. We're hoping to have a boot camp that we can talk about coming up soon. Not quite yet, but keep checking it out there masculine journey.

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Box 550, Kernersville, North Carolina, 27285. It was really kind of hard to find a bump in distraction. And then I stumbled upon this one and it's Andre Crouch, the gospel singer and, and he's talking about the enemy in the song. And this is just from the chorus, but he talks about, he names the enemy distraction, right? And so don't, don't buy into that distraction. He's trying to lead you astray is basically what the song is about.

And, and that's the enemy's plan. And that's what we're talking about today is this topic of distraction. Now, Harold, you had something you want to talk to us about on distraction.

Well, I worked for many, many years as a computer programmer systems analyst. And so I needed not to be distracted. So the tactic that I adopted to enable my tunnel vision to work properly was I would put on the earphones and put on some music because music did not interfere with my thought process. Whereas phone calls, people stopping at the door of the office or the cube yakking that that was a distraction that interrupted my work. And so I deliberately pushed people away. I just ignored. I mean, it's like, you don't exist. I'm busy go away. And, and the earphones and the music work that worked extremely well.

But even somebody like me that has good tunnel vision and the ability to concentrate can easily be distracted. And I mentioned to the guys earlier that I can remember as a kid sitting in church and if a wasp came in, the preacher was no longer there. He was gone. All I could focus on was the wasp.

And who's he going to land on and will he sting him? Well, there's probably a piece of it was kind of hoping he would just a little bit. Yeah. Yeah, it's, it makes me wonder why my son wears headphones all the time around me.

Maybe he doesn't want to talk to me. Thanks, Harold. Now I have a complex. You know, he's always got the earbuds in and I'm like, Okay, hmm.

Now I'm gonna have to think about that one a little bit. I am gonna really screw with this topic, because I want to take it to Jesus. And when was Jesus distracted?

Anybody. Was he ever? Did he ever have a distraction? Now the disciples would say, Oh, you know, go away kids or, you know, you blind folks, get out of the way. We've got important stuff going on.

But Jesus never really had a disruption and distraction. And I'm saying that because I if there had been such a thing in the 50s as ADHD, I would have been diagnosed with it. So and I'm still ADD. I just don't have that much hyper left in me. But I've also got narcolepsy. So for me to focus on anything is a wonderful challenge. And I know you're talking about in prayer, you know, you get distracted. Well, I, I pretty much stay distracted. But it always can wander back to that place. And I think sometimes, Harold, I'm not picking on you. But yeah, I am.

We could be so focused on what we're trying to get done, that we miss what we really are supposed to be doing. So I just want to I just wanted to mess up the whole concept there. And then there's the question of, you know, what did Harold do for headphones back in the 1400s? Big funnel things. No, I remember these vaguely.

It's two big conch shells tied together. And that song was the ocean. One song, my favorite. Yeah.

That's a great playlist. Yeah. So Robby, let's, let's get to your clip. Okay.

Yeah. And so what you go ahead and tell us a little bit about your clip, and then we'll play it and come back and talk about it. It's from a wonderful movie called run. And it's about Jesse, the story of Jesse Owens. And, you know, clearly, he came up in a time of, I guess, more vocal, but he was a little bit more vocal.

And he was a little bit more vocal. Prejudice. Is that even a word? But there was a lot of prejudice.

Yeah. So there's a lot of prejudice. And here's this, in this particular scene, he's, you know, practicing being a track star. And this football team is practicing. And of course, they are being horribly offensive to him. Actually, there's been words cut out of the clip to make sure you didn't get the worst part of the offense. But there's plenty of offensive words that are being said to him as the coach begins to help him with how he blocks out the noises. And so you'll hear as they come back into the locker room after they're out on the field, that the coach is now going to begin to teach Jesse how to focus on what's important instead of all the noise.

And as I listen to the clip, which you'll have to do here in a second, you can't help but kind of see, wow, this is kind of me in prayer. So go ahead. Wow. Great Jesse Owens. Jesse, let's get back to basics.

Why don't you swing from those bamboo poles over there, boy? One more thing. Jesse, you want to tell me so interesting about the football team?

I don't know, coach. I just got distracted. Oh, you got distracted?

See, that's what I'm talking about. You can't get distracted. Understand? All right, Larry. Finish this up now. I got boys who need a shower. Yeah, one sec, coach.

I'm not quite through yet. Sit down. Everybody sit down. Sit down. Larry, hustle these out of here. If you get your head turned by a few gorillas and warm up pads here at home, how are you going to hold up a mission?

Is he called gorilla? Hey, look at me, coach. A lot of people show up for the big 10. You're going to be able to block it all out. It's just noise. It's all this noise. They will love you or they will hate you.

It does not matter. Either way, when you're out there, you're on your own. Jesse, do you hear me? Yeah. Yeah, coach, I hear you.

Good. So from my perspective, it's just a beautiful scene of, wow, so much of my life of paying attention to the noise instead of paying attention to the coach who's there to speak to you, to give you some sense of direction, which is prayer. And so for me, I really, really, really struggle right here. I get up early. I go to start to pray. And I'll find myself, it's 20 minutes later, and I haven't really said the first prayer. I mean, I actually even have a script to try to get me on track.

I'll get going for a minute, maybe 30 seconds. And then I find myself off in La La Land. And when I finally come back, I'm right, like, oh, my goodness, another 15 minutes has gone by, and I haven't gotten to my third line. And this literally goes on quite often for more than an hour before I begin to break through the noise and get to where Jesse got to right that second. And so recently, James Banks did a piece on encouraging prayer, where he talked about the full armor of God being a prayer exercise, that here God is going to show us how to stay focused, be like Jesse, but he's going to do it by actually putting on this armor because the battle is a spiritual battle.

And when you really heard what was just going on in that clip, you may have thought that it was a lot of things. But clearly, it was a spiritual battle. And so one of the things that says very clearly at the beginning of the full armor in Ephesians six, I think it's around verse 11, it starts talking about you got to stand before you, before you, you know, put the armor, therefore stand. And now that you're standing, stand therefore, you know, in other words, it's obviously very clear. So I began to study that word stand seeing how important it was to Paul. And I understood once I began to really look at the word in Hebrew, why Paul said it so many times, because when you really picture it from a, from a Hebrew letter standpoint, the first letter represents the hand of God, it's called a yud, but it represents the hand of God coming down. So if I'm going to reach up and grab God's hand, first thing I got to do is let go of all the other mess that's got me so distracted, just like Jesse did.

Right. And now that I've got a hold of Jesus's hand, well, guess what is you got a nail print in it, it may be down his wrist, according to Harold, but it's somewhere in the general facility is this nail mark, which speaks to me, being able to get under the blood of Christ. And like Jesus said to the woman caught in adultery, now where are your accusers? So just by letting go of what I was going to get and reach up, grab God's hand, come under the blood, silence those noises, because you don't have any accusers. And the second letter is a static, which means righteousness to some extent, but it also means hunt, to be hunting for something. And so when you're looking for your keys, you're not too easily distracted.

You're right on the deal, right? Or if you think about something that you're really, and Jesus made the reference to all these people that were looking for the lost key, the lost, you know, dowry, all these things. So this idea of hunting for what, and then the last letter is abet, which means house, but it means very specifically in this case, God's house and it is up.

Okay. Just like in our other clip. But if you think that you're looking up, holding Jesus's hand, hunting for God, then it gives me a chance to, at least for a few minutes, not be distracted to go there. Again, it's a process to me and I'm hoping at some point that I can begin to relate this more, but actually, since I began to understand this, I really have put it into my prayer regular activities in the morning and it is quite helpful. And once I fall back out of, you know, concentration or whatever you can call that, I go back to it again and say, okay, let me get a hold of your hand, Jesus.

Cause really I need to hear from the coach. I can be thinking about all those things that people said to me. I can be thinking about all the people that are judging me. I can be thinking about all these different things, but when you got a hold of the coach's hand and he's saying, can you hear me?

I think it's beautiful. Yeah. And Robby that's, you know, you have to be able to recognize the squirrels for what they are. They're squirrels.

You know, unless you happen to really just like squirrels and you want to watch squirrels, I'm not saying you can't go watch squirrels. What I'm saying is recognizing the distractions for what they are and what they take you away from. What we didn't get to in this part of the show and we'll talk about in the after hours is when has God distracted you? Or we'll call it entice.

When has God enticed you? And also we're going to share some stories about the distractions that we fight. We go to masculinejourney.org to pick up the after hours podcast. We'll talk with you next week. Don't know what our topic is going to be, but we know God's going to be in the middle of it. And he's going to be working in our lives. And we hope that he's working in yours to avoid the squirrels, to grab his hand and hunt for his kingdom.

We'll talk to you next week. This is the Truth Network. One of our generous sponsors here at the Truth Network has come under fire.

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