What Blocks Your Joy?

I’ve only seen one major solar eclipse. The warnings were clear so we looked at it through a hole in one piece of paper allowing the image of what the sun was doing to show up on another.

You could witness the slow dissolving away of our massive energy source, being blocked by something as comparably insignificant as our moon. I had seen examples of that happening and knew what I’d see. What I wasn’t prepared for was the darkness that came over the earth when the sun was fully blocked. It was eerie. It makes sense after experiencing that how more primitive people thought something disastrous was happening or would happen. It was like a shroud being draped across the world.

Now, to take the magic of the moment away, all that happened was the moon got in the sun’s way. It temporarily blocked the light, warmth and comfort of our blazing source of life. The sun never went away, nor did its effect or sufficiency in our lives. It was only temporarily blocked, limiting our experiencing that effect and sufficiency.

Joy can be blocked. Stuff—the great bane of life—gets in the way. That stuff can be anything that for the moment gains my attention and distracts me from what is really important.

My back has gone out. The pain I feel permeates my whole body. I can’t walk, I can’t move, at times I can’t talk. Operations that are so natural that I don’t even have to think about them now are a struggle. The irritation going on inside has blocked out the natural flow of my life.

Whenever we allow stuff to become more important, regardless of how painful or loud or distracting it is, it will block our Joy. As with the eclipse, I will loose contact with that which is vital to my life by focusing on that which is temporary and of lesser value.

We must change our habit of looking directly at the stuff. Instead, look at it through the pinhole where we will see it in perspective and help us focus upon how great our God is to accomplish all that concerns us.

Question: How do you fight the distractions to stay focused on God?

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