Have you ever been driving your car down the road and your mind is totally focused on something else? Maybe you are distracted thinking about what’s for dinner, projects you need to complete, or simply daydreaming. You pull into your driveway, and you have no idea how you got there. Turns out you are in good company. We all do this from time to time. There is even a name for it. It is called highway “hypnosis” or “white-line fever”. You have done a task so many times that you are almost on autopilot. You still use your turn signal, you still obey the speed limit, and you are just zoned out.
It isn’t hard to transpose that idea over to our daily lives, “life hypnosis” if you will. Where you look up from your desk and ask the question “What day is it?” I even find myself in a habit of allowing a constant barrage of screens, and noise, entertainment to be persistent throughout the day. Wake up, look at the phone. Drive to the office, sports radio. Laptop and phone the rest of the day until finally home. Then it’s TV, homework on a computer, and video games in the background. Then as the night closes, I watch a game to relax.
I heard a preacher say one time that his biggest concern for this generation was their lack of ability to sit and be quiet with God. It makes sense when you think about it. If our days are filled with noise, it is hard to hear the voice of God. If culture gets 16 hours and God gets 5 minutes, multiplied over a month and it’s easy to see how “life hypnosis” sets in.
As a church, we have been going through the Lord’s prayer. As the disciples see Jesus going off to pray frequently, they want to know the secret. What does Jesus know that we don’t? Each week we have a habit that we are practicing as a church. This week we simply want to pray over our calendar. We want to say to God, this is your day, help me listen and be faithful. In 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 Paul says, “3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
This passage provides me with two immediate thoughts:
1. We do not fight how the world fights.
As Christians, our weapons are not the same as the weapons of the world. When we come across an enemy, we pray for them. When the world says we must want more, we know it’s more blessed to give than receive. When we reach places of authority, like Jesus, we use it to serve those around us. In this age of information, we believe being silent before God enables us to live life to the full.
2. We give every thought to God.
Verse 5 says to take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ. So, try this with me today. Start or continue to open your day to the direction God is leading. This will require us to pay closer attention to the Spirits leading. No “white line fever”, but intentional moments of sitting still and being quiet.
What might this impact? You may still turn on the game at night but become sensitive and aware of the Spirit’s guiding. This may mean instead of shushing a kid, we turn off the TV to hear a story. On the drive to work, the radio might be on, but God can bring a person to your mind to pray for. If every thought is taken captive, then God has an invitation to guide your day. Try this with me. Open your calendar. Yes, right now...I will wait. Ready? Look at your day. Invite God in. Permit God to interrupt at any moment because we know He is good.