Living WWJD In an ADHD World

OK, I confess.  While I have never been officially tested, my friends would concur, I am prone to Attention Deficit Disorder.  There.  I said it.  Surprise!  But really, honestly, hasn't that prognosis become about as normal as a setting on our dishwasher?  "Normal", "quick", "delicate", "extra dry", "slightly distracted", "somewhat unpredictable"...."Squirrel!" (to steal a quote from the movie Up) Maybe the diagnosis is true.  Maybe it's not.  The real question I am asking is this:  How can I live more intentional in an increasingly distracted world?  And I don't think one needs to be A.D.D. or A.D.H.D. to wonder the same thing.  I think somewhere deep down we are all asking something like that.  How do we live...better?


It’s weird really, A.D.H.D has become quite a phenomenon - The inability to hold focus, constant activity, moving from one thing to the next, lack of impulse control, anger management issues - It sounds like A.D.H.D. has made its way into our world more than we realize.  Is this life - laden with distractions, 'pleasure' seeking, and busyness - really working?

One look at the world around us - including the world within the walls of the church - and it's clear our A.D.H.D. approach is not working.  If it was, the use of anti-depressants would not be on the rise as it is.  Crime would not be the back-drop of most evening news reports, and divorce would be less not more frequent.  Lawsuits would be the exception not the norm.  Obesity would not be an epidemic.  Credit cards would not be maxed out from trips to the mall, Disneyland, or weekly "pedis". Parents wouldn't be lost in a sea of sporting events that consume their every waking hour.   Our 4 year olds Birthday party would not have to be "pintrest"...then Facebooked...then instagramed. (I'm going to share a secret with you...4 year olds don't care if their favors were made from recycled jars decoupaged in vintage fabric and filled with homemade organic treats....they just don't.) Nope our A.D.H.D. approach has not served us well.  Distractions are rarely the answer...they only pretend to soothe a bleeding (or bored)soul...a soul that's screaming for something more...for something better.


So...WWJD (what would Jesus do)? Because I really do want to DWJWD (Do what Jesus would do)... Of all people, HE seemed to focused on the things that matter.  He was busy but not distracted.  I don't think He was very bored either because He was going about His Father's work.  Yet, when life came at Him at break-neck speed He was at the ready... present and conversational.  For instance, when the bleeding woman caught the edge of His garment He paused.  If ever there was a moment for a man to "vacate the premises" and find something else to do, that was it!  But Jesus stayed.  He talked with the woman (shameful as it was at the time) and received her story. He didn't have to, according to scripture she was healed the moment she touched His robe.  By most "A.D.H.D-world" standards, His job was done and the next "thing" was waiting...Snap to it! But by WWJD standards, maybe the job wasn't finished.  Maybe the biggest miracle was the conversation between the Divine King of kings and a forgotten woman who longed for healing ...for dignity ...for friendship.  So much would have missed had Jesus "squirreled" off to the next thing instead of pausing his steps for a moment to take a closer look.

 Maybe life is found in the pause ...instead of the sprint

When I am distracted I tend to neglect relationships and sadly that means people too.  I move from one bright shiny object to the next. I see it glisten in the distance and something in me is driven to find its pleasure; pleasure that wears off soon after, so I move on to the next distraction. On and on it goes, satisfying for a moment, maybe even a season, but in the end leaving me more empty than when I started. That's what distractions do.  They give the illusion of satisfaction while secretly denying the soul.  
What would happen if we stopped our sprint to the next "drug of choice" and paused to touch the hem of His garment - if even only for a moment?  Would we be changed? Would our soul stop its bleeding? Would we be surprised by the conversation we encounter with Christ?  Would a piece of regenerated life awaken within us?...maybe life is found in the pause instead of the sprint.


WWJD?....He would pause.  He would be indifferent to the things that seduce a glance to steal our gaze.  He, instead, would gaze deeply into the heart of God through the waking of a sunrise, or the stillness of a prayer, He would delight in the joy of a child or the playfulness of a puppy. He would  notice the tug on His robe and, like He did with that woman, be at the ready...present and conversational; capturing the divine eternal moments that simply show up without trend or demand. He would welcome them with glad submission and... join in.

I want to do the same.  I want to DWJWD and find more than what this A.D.H.D world can ever offer.


Next post: Sunday, June 13 - "Alternative Realities"

Poverty of the Mind

There's something I've been thinking about lately and it has caused me to reconsider my perspective on the way in which I approach how I live my life day to day.  To explain what I mean I need to give a little background. 


While taking a trip recently to an area of the world where poverty runs rampant and there has been extensive efforts towards relief and development, I was struck but a conversation my husband shared with one of the development workers.  She mentioned that even though many of the people she works with now have jobs and could readily leave the slum life, many  have remained there and seem to instinctively choose to live in cardboard houses, sleep on dirt floors alongside steams of sewage, and rarely set foot outside the despairing reality in which they live – many don’t seem to fully understand what is available to them. They’ve been given the resources and now come home at the end of the day having earned wages tucked neatly in their back pocket, but they do not know how to make use of it. 

 

I found myself asking, "Then what's the point of it?" She then made a distinction between economic poverty and emotional poverty.  What they were learning is that it is much easier to transition them out of economic poverty because it involves dealing with issues that are more concrete, like skill building and the marketing of goods and trades. These are things they can engage and grow in.  However, helping them shift their thinking from one of scarcity to one of resource or abundance is much more difficult and will take longer.   

On top of that, even though many had the resources to leave the slum and find a different kind of life, most not only didn’t do it, but also took to guarding the slum’s boundaries so that even those who wanted to help could not get in.  They were held captive by the poverty of their mind because they did not have a vision for anything different.

Now here's where some ponderings come in to play.  I wonder if we do not have a similar perspective to those in the slums.  Figuratively speaking we have built our spiritual internal home in ways that can reflect an internal slum and we find ourselves impoverished.  At some point we have been introduced to God and have taken on some of the “skills” by way of Bible study, church attendance, etc…these are the concrete ideas that were easy for us to embrace early on and they are indeed the necessary place to begin and thereby grow – as was skill building and job acquiring for those in the slum.  But I wonder if we have stopped there? 

 

It seems we have resources but don’t really know how to use them and so we return to a "slum-way" of living.  For example, we have learned from studying our Bible that in our anger we ought not sin, and yet we may be accustom to “heart-sewage” in the form of yelling to get our point across.  We have had plenty of devotionals or heard motivational Christian speakers talk about the pain of slander yet we can often turn to gossiping to sooth our insecurity.  We know that we are uniquely created in God's image, chosen and dearly loved, but we may find ourselves accepting on-going mistreatment from someone and we allow that mistreatment to define us.  We have heard from the very beginning that there is a "God-shaped hole in our heart that only he can fill"  yet we set aside our self-worth in order to be “loved” by someone else and it never satisfies….The list is can go on - right?   The truth of it is, we want to move forward but sometimes we can't, and instead we return to the slums and find ourselves caught in a cycle of sin from which we cannot break free.  On top of that, we often guard the door of our internal soul-slum space while our own fear and pride/shame keep others at arms length and prevent anyone from really getting in and bringing help - including God. 


Sometimes (Now don't shoot me here) we are held captive by the poverty of our mind and we simply lack the vision for anything different.  Just like there was a good life just across town, outside the slums for so many in those impoverished areas; there is a rich, abundant, beautiful life in our midst as well.  Living in the ongoing presence of God's love and participating in HIs Kingdom as a child of the King is what we are made for.  It is life outside of the slums and it begins now...right here...


....But how do we get there? 



This is part one of a two -part post...tune in next time for thoughts on how we can begin to grow a vision for living outside the slum.