DAY 24

ATTENTION SPAN

JENNY NITZ, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

A few years ago, my daughter Mackenzie was reading a book that she suggested to me—The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer. Immediately, I dismissed the thought of reading it, knowing I would be convicted because of the amount of hurry that was in my life... so I put it on my “to read” list. This past summer I ordered it, feeling like it was time to face some of my internal struggle and looking for a reprieve in the constant hustle and the noise in my mind. In one of the beginning chapters, the author talks about our attention span as Americans:

Cue a terrifying trend: our attention span is dropping with each passing year. In 2000, before the digital revolution, it was twelve seconds, so it's not exactly like we had a lot of wiggle room. But since then it's dropped to eight seconds. To put things in perspective, a goldfish has an attention span of nine seconds. Yes. That's right. We're losing to goldfish.6

What you choose to give your attention to is who you become. I look back and think I've wasted my attention on so many worthless things, things that don't matter in the Kingdom of Heaven. I often say that people have money for the things they choose to spend it on, but the same can be said about our attention. We have an abundance of time and attention at our disposal that we decide how to spend. We can choose to get up early and spend time with Jesus or sleep in. We can choose to listen to worship music or waste time watching Netflix. We can choose to read our Bible or not. We make a conscious decision about the amount of time we give Jesus everyday. Our time is such a precious commodity, yet it is so often wasted on things that aren’t important to Jesus.

The devil doesn’t need to destroy us if he can just distract us. Most distractions are not bad things, but they’re enough to take our eyes off Jesus. As long as our attention isn’t on Jesus, the devil doesn’t care what it’s on. Distraction has always been one of the enemy’s tactics, but the availability of constant distractions is exponentially growing. The more accessible distractions are, the harder we have to fight against them. There are so many things vying for our attention... and then we keep losing to goldfish.

The way we choose to live at times is so contradictory to what Jesus has called Christ followers to. In Matthew 11, Jesus says,

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

We were not meant to live the chaotic, unsustainable pace that we often see around us. Our attention is meant to be fixed on Jesus. In Him alone, we find the rest that our souls so desperately desire. Give Jesus your attention today—over and over again, turn your attention towards Him.

PRAYER

Jesus, You deserve all my time, all my attention and are worthy of all praise. I confess that I am often distracted by things that don’t matter and want to be better at focusing on You. In You alone will I find rest for my weary soul. Thank you for Your promise that says Your yoke is easy and Your burden is light—I will cling to that! I pray for a hunger that cannot be satisfied anywhere else but in Your presence and that my eyes would be fixed on You. Jesus, You are so good and so faithful, amen.