“Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing.”
Luke 10:41-42
One of the unforeseen benefits of giving time and energy to the work of being a volunteer puppy raiser for Guide Dogs for the Blind is that the experience has been a rich source of material for this space. It is a veritable garden of metaphors for describing the process of our spiritual formation. This, along with the way that Latifah and Wailea (our two most recent female black Labrador retrievers) have grabbed ahold of our hearts and gained access to our souls, makes for fertile soil in which this spiritual growth can take place.
One of the cardinal rules of puppy raising is paying attention to what are referred to as the three D’s: Distraction, Duration and Distance. A big part of the work of training is about directing and redirecting the puppy’s focus: Rewarding sustained focus on the “right” things and inviting them to redirect their focus when they are paying too much attention to the “wrong” things. The interaction of these three D’s is what we are asked to consider when we are trying to refocus the puppy’s attention.
When the puppy wants to pull toward another dog or a squirrel who darts out from a bush, we introduce a distraction from the distraction to get her focus back on us. When we see a dog up ahead of us, we consider the matter of distance and assess how close we can come to that dog and keep our puppy on task. When our puppy is staying on task, we stay attentive to the matter of how long the puppy can reasonably be expected to maintain that good behavior and not go after the thing that might be enticing her to do otherwise. In short, in the interaction of these three factors we try to manage the environment in such a way that the puppy can be successful and then be rewarded for that success.
But here's the thing: we can’t remove the distraction. We can’t somehow remove the possibility of distractibility; we can only gradually teach the puppy to stay on task despite it. It’s all about learning to cope. It’s not about removing the distraction or somehow eradicating it from the field of view. Rather it is about engaging it, dispatching it, relegating it to someplace of lesser importance and moving on with the more important task of being a guide dog, because a guide dog who takes off after a squirrel, ceases to be a guide dog.
I am pretty distracted these days. And frankly, most of those distractions easily become invitations to anxiety and maybe even despair. It’s all too easy to take my eyes off the One who holds all things together (Colossians 1:17) when I am also dodging the shrapnel of various cultural and political explosions. So, I am asking what I can do to manage those distractions and refocus my attention away from the destructive and toward the edifying. How do I put more space between myself and the invitations to despair? How do I increase tolerance of and decrease reactivity to the cacophony of the doomsayer’s warnings?
As I was preparing the worship service for last week the story Martha and Mary in Luke 10 came to mind as one tool that might be helpful in this attempt to refocus. Jesus’ word to Martha that night was a calming reminder that there are more important things to ponder than the world’s various invitations to anxiety and despair. As Martha busied herself with trying to get everyone fed and make everyone happy; as she fielded an unending stream of distractions that were coming her way; as she noticed everything and felt like she was the only one noticing the most important things; Jesus gently and lovingly took her aside and said: “Stop!”
Take a break Martha. Come sit next to your sister, Mary. Put some distance between you and your current version of the most important thing. Have a look instead at the gifts of love and grace that your sister is receiving. Martha, Martha, the food you have prepared is great, the setting for this party is lovely, the gathered guests are happy. Good work, but now enjoy what you didn’t plan, and what you cannot manipulate or control. Take a look at Mary. She’s apprehended the truth that your distractions are preventing you from seeing.
Basically, it’s a call to worship. And worship is a very effective distraction from the unhelpful distractions that have accumulated during our week. Worship puts some needed distance between us and the media shouts that tell us to jump into the nearest foxhole and take cover. Worship is a call to refocus on the One who has a firm hold on us and has promised not to leave or forsake us.
Worship doesn’t minimalize or deny the distractions. They are dangerous and they are real. But they aren’t the whole story. And they aren’t therefore worth our exclusive attention. In worship we let ourselves be reminded of where our primary focus needs to be. Worship directs our attention to what Jesus calls “the better part.” It’s where we are fed with the food that sustains us for life’s journey because it’s where we remind ourselves that we were made by God for a place in God’s heart and that we will be restless until we find our rest in God.
O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother;
my soul is like the weaned child that is with me. O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time on and forevermore.
Psalm 131
David Rohrer
07/08/2022