Holes in the Screen Door

I miss the old screen doors, the kind we ran through as kids to play outside, hearing the spring jerk it closed approvingly behind us. If you weren’t careful, it was an unnecessary torment to get your arm hair yanked out by that door spring. In 1986 a revolutionary torturous hair removal device was marketed called the Epilady, which I’m sure was inspired by an old door spring… but alas I’m easily distracted.
      Apparently, most people suffer from the same shortcoming. Studies show the average human attention span is a mere 8.5 seconds! (For reference, a goldfish has an attention span of nine seconds…) It’s no surprise, then, that Mom is constantly telling me to “Keep your mind on your business “. 
      Everyone who grew up in a home equipped with screen doors, knows that overtime holes got worn into the screen. Dad used to tell the story how their old screen door had many holes in it allowing flies and critters to get in the house. One memorable evening all the kids were gathered around while Grandma Cowger read from the Holy Bible. Her voice faded into the cool evening air as their eyes concentrated on the scene unfolding before them. A fly had landed on grandma‘s bear shin, and a toad that also made its way through the screen door was stalking the fly. Suddenly, the toad seized the moment and shot its long wet tongue onto grandma‘s leg. This was quite a surprise so she threw down the Bible and began to stomp and holler in such a spectacle an outsider might’ve thought the scripture had moved her deeply.
      A similar thing happened at the Buckwheat Church one summer. During the sermon, a mouse that built its home in the non-functional, ornate potbellied stove in the center aisle came out to see what all the ruckus was about. One by one it stole the congregants’ attention away from the words of the preacher. 
      The question worth asking is, while it might not be a toad or a mouse, what is it that is currently distracting us from God and His word? Is it a church or Christian that caused pain? That wasn’t Jesus. Do our hands hold our phone more than our bible? Are we too busy, too tired, too prideful? The enemy uses a number of distractions to keep us from a meaningful relationship with Jesus, and it’s been said the first chapter in his playbook is Distract (followed by Deceive, Discourage, and Destroy.) Lot’s of times we are aware of the holes in our screen door and what has gotten through, but don’t do anything about it.
      When the plague of frogs invaded homes in Old Testament Egypt, Moses asked the pharaoh, “ When do you want the frogs to go away? Pharoah said “Tomorrow.’ (Exodus 8:9-10) Tomorrow?? Why not today? Why not right now? I’ll bet God is asking the same questions concerning us booting the distractions out of our houses! Why not today? Why not right now? Changes we need to make are often easier to put off until tomorrow, but scripture encourages us not to wait. “Don’t put it off, do it now. Don’t rest until you do.” (Proverbs 6:4) and “If you put off until tomorrow the work you could do today, tomorrow never seems to come.” (Proverbs 24:33-34)
      One of the best examples of dedicated focus and zero distraction is the skill of the men and women who make up the Blue Angels, the US Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron. Some of their high speed ultra-tight formations involve their plane wings overlapping each other only 18 inches apart while flying 700 mph! Do you know how they are able to achieve this level of focus? Training. When it comes to avoiding distractions, let’s train in God’s Word, be focused like the Angels, and fix the metaphorical holes in our screen doors.

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