I suggest that most people live their lives completely distracted by what is unimportant. Business and Life Coaching consultants often refer to the competing forces of the urgent and the important.
It is easy to be distracted by what seems ‘urgent’, such as the person crying for attention, while things that are ‘important’ are neglected.
As a simple example, we know that our family is important. One of the most valuable things we can invest in is relating well in our marriage, and with parents, children and siblings. Yet many a business person neglects those relationships because of meetings or processes that seems urgent at the time. Over time the important things are damaged and there may not even be much to show for all the running around after the seemingly urgent things.
The distractions can be quite irrelevant, but still eat up our lives.
To become good at something we need to invest time to learn and practice the skills. People who get distracted and don’t do the work fail to achieve the expertise they should have developed.
Today, with our wonderful technology, it is easier than ever to have our time gobbled up with distractions or chasing irrelevant things. We are far more likely to have someone or something impose on our time and thinking, since technology makes way for those intrusions.
At a deeper level, we can be distracted by things that seem important to us at our stage of life, yet which, in the big picture, are more irrelevant than we think.
School students, for example, can become highly stressed over an assignment or a test, even reduced to fear and tears. Yet that particular test or project slips into insignificance quickly enough.
Those looking for work or aiming to advance their career can become highly focused on a meeting, application or situation they think is highly important. Yet it can often pass as insignificant. All the agitation or pressure they felt before that moment proved to be unwarranted.
I recall various meetings I have had, and even times when I went to court to fight over an issue, where there seemed to be great pressure leading up to the moment. But then the meeting was called off or the court hearing adjourned or abandoned.
How wonderful it would be if we could actually know in advance that something was or wasn’t important. It would be wonderful to be completely relaxed about an exam, assignment, meeting or some other impending pressure point, because we knew it really wasn’t important and all would work out well.
It would be wonderful to be able to know that some demanding voice was actually irrelevant to our life journey. It would be wonderful to know in advance that some distraction or other was going nowhere so we could disconnect and get on with the important things in life.
There are two things to draw out of this reflection on Irrelevant Things. One is that God tells us what is really important and with that wisdom we can assess things more clearly. The other is the wonderful news that ‘God has everything under control’ and so, with His blessing, we don’t have to stress about the various pressure points or distractions that come our way.
In the really big picture of things most of life is irrelevant. I’m sorry if that is a bit too shocking for you, but it’s what wise King Solomon realised thousands of years ago. Everything is ‘vanity’, or meaningless in real terms.
“Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, utterly meaningless; all is vanity.” Ecclesiastes 1:2
When you get to heaven no-one will care what cars you owned or what house you once lived in. In fact, you won’t care about it for an instant. It won’t matter whether you had money or lived a struggling existence. It won’t matter whether you were Mr Universe, or crippled. It won’t matter if you were a top student, a political leader, a billionaire, or illiterate and unemployed.
That is not to say you should crawl into a hole in despair, but it means you are best to let God lead you to His chosen path, as that might have more value than all of your own dreams you are chasing.
What will matter in the end is whether you are God’s child. Only God’s children get to heaven. Only those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their personal saviour and Lord will enjoy the wonders of eternity with God.
So all the friendships, success moments, shiny new things you own, good feelings you feel, accolades you receive and landmarks you pass end up in the collection of Irrelevant Things, when compared to eternity.
Many of those you look up to and want to emulate won’t make it to heaven. Their earthly success won’t get them into God’s family. They will have burned up their real hope of eternal joy and wonder, for Irrelevant Things.
Don’t be as foolish as them.
And, at the same time, as you journey through life, God and His blessing turn out to be far more helpful and lasting than a good exam mark, making a good impression at a meeting, getting the promotion you want, or finishing a project on time.
“We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28
As you trust God, letting Him lead you, and calling out to Him in every situation, you can be sure that God will work good for you. So that takes the pressure off you having to be your own saviour. Do your best, as an offering of your talents to God, but trust the result to Him.
You may not get what you think is best, but in time you will be thankful to God for what He has done. Remember that at times you will want to chase things that are not good for you at all. So don’t be too disappointed when God protects you by not giving you what you think is best.
“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” Proverbs 14:12
Keep your eyes on eternity and keep yourself close to God, no matter what is happening on earth. And trust God as you navigate your path through life. Remember that in the long run all the things people get excited about are actually ‘vanity’. Focus on building God’s Kingdom and doing God’s Will, trusting Him in every step of life’s journey.
That will protect you from the delusion and destruction that comes from Irrelevant Things.
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