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"

False-fires

This is a continuation of previous posts beginning with "Burned Out"

"So if you have been raised into union with Christ, look around, pay attention to where Christ is in charge. Set your mind on God's reality not on the things of the earth, for you've died to that stuff. And the life that you now have is hidden with Christ in God so that when he is revealed, then your real life, your true self will be revealed in the light of his glory." Col 3:1-3

 When God began the process of building a "new-wine"  way of life in me, the strain of my then present way of life felt all-the-more pronounced. Something was missing and wrong.  Where was the promised Joy of John 10:10? Why did it feel like I was forever circling around the same traps of unhealthy habits and conflict. "Victory in Jesus" seemed a pipe-dream.  In the discontentment, God was inviting me into a journey to discover what it meant to live freely and lightly with Christ and know His unforced rhythms of grace and abundant Joy (Matt 11:29-30).  Though, the path looked oddly different than those promises.  While I strained for God as crushing circumstances forced the unseen to the surface,  I simply didn't have it in me to "fake it" anymore.   In short order the false motivations behind my activity fell under fire.  If I was to learn how to desire Christ and companion with Him, then I had to ask a few questions... why I was doing what I was doing.  What was behind my choices and the activity that flowed from them?  

For a long time I couldn't identify what flowed directly from desire or joy, or my honest and true "self".  Much of what I did was a response to obligation, fear, or image management.  It was these “false-fires” that needed to be acknowledged.  False-fires occur when the activity we do feeds a false part of us.  The False part of us can be called the “should-self” or the “sensational-self”.  The “should-self” is who we believe we should be in relation to God and others but not who we really are.   So much of what I did had a corrupted or false driving component of “should” to it and flowed out of who I thought I should be or how I thought I should act.  The “sensational-self” is the self that makes decisions based on whether or not it will provide a sense of being special or sensational.  It's the part of me that wants to impress others.  Both feed a false sense of purpose.

           The truth is, our sense of purpose can only come from a transformed life in Christ but before that, our sense of being loved and special can only come as we encounter God in a deeply personal way-a way in which we hear from Him, "You are my beloved".  We love because God "first loved us".  Any other foundation is unstable and false.  It can and will ignite false-fires within us.  False-fires drive us in a way that is dangerously close to the real thing but they aren't sincere nor do they fully satisfy.  I longed for the "real-fire", "first-loved" life of Christ meant to burn uniquely within me, but how could I find it when all these other false-fires burned so brightly out of control? 

Hebrews 4:12-13 says this,

 “God's word is alive and working and is sharper than a double-edged sword. It cuts all the way into us, where the soul and the spirit are joined, to the center of our joints and bones. And it judges the thoughts and feelings in our hearts. Nothing in all the world can be hidden from God. Everything is clear and lies open before him, and to him we must explain the way we have lived.”

            Out of this passage flowed the prayer of my heart.  “God, show me why I do what I do.  Stop me if it's not initiated by you.  Give me the strength to let my ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and my ‘no’ be ‘no’.  Show me your fire, meant to burn uniquely within me.”  

Now normally I would be ending this entry about now but... I want to warn you that by praying the prayer above, fierce uprisings may occur.  God’s will encounters ours and often the two do not agree, but take heart! That battle of the wills is at least real!  God does not want our “should-self”. It isn't real - obligation has never coincided with honesty and love...its strange how we mix that up.  Nor does God need our "sensational-self". He already delights in us!  ...How can He love and transform us when what we bring to Him is a portrayal of what we should or want to be, but isn't really who we are?  God is fully aware of our imperfect real-self, and He's altogether elated to companion with that person.   It is our real-self that He calls "beloved".  That broken, messed up part of you that you don't like...He loves! That's who He accepts, and desires to make new.  It is only our real-self that has the capacity to receive his "new-wine" life.   It is only our real self that can truly desire Him. It is the unhindered, unadorned beloved child within us that holds the flint to be ignited with His fire, burning ever brighter with His joyfully redemptive story of life, purpose and hope.  Being honest helps us extinguish what is false and allows God to refine and rekindle the "real". 

So I must ask...What are some of the "false-fires" that burn within you?  How might God be inviting you to something different?

Here's a link to a song that I often return to when confronting "false-fires" within.  Maybe you would like it too :)  http://youtu.be/god9flc_xbk