Wednesday; January 4

Have you noticed how easy it is to distract ourselves in today’s world? Throughout the years, humans have been able to find hobbies and activities to divert their attention away from the important things of life. On one hand, this can be a benefit because we need a chance to rest and relax. The adage, “All work and no play make Jack a dull boy” has an element of truth to it. However, when taken to the extreme, escapism can be detrimental. First of all, it can distract us from what we need to be doing; but maybe even more importantly it can fool us into believing that all is well – even when it isn’t. When we escape too deeply into our hobbies or distractions, we create an allusion that things are okay even when they aren’t. We don’t want to deal with our troubles and feel like if we just ignore them, they’ll go away. The problem is that they don’t. Unless we address the issues in our lives, they will still be there when we get back to them. In fact, by making a habit of ignoring them, there is a chance they will grow worse and become even more deeply imbedded in our lives.

I encourage us to make time to get away from the day-to-day struggles of life, but let’s also have the wisdom to understand when it is time to get back to reality. Playing games, indulging in mindless hobbies or even taking mini-vacations from reality need to come with boundaries. Wisely deciding when, where and how we choose to distract ourselves (and developing time frames for returning to what we need to do) can help keep us out of trouble.

Let’s remember that distractions might take away the uncomfortableness of life, but we can’t continue to hide from truth. Is it time to get back to the realities of life?

Think About It!

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