distractions. or {crazy love: a book review} and {there is no such thing as time free time}

I struggle with distractions. I get distracted by things. I just really enjoy gadgets. For example: I'm writing this from a new Macbook my parents bought me for graduation. (woot, im a graduate).  I can at any given time list 5 or 6 different things I would love to own. I am the definition of a consumer. I am never satisfied, I am always looking on towards the next big thing.

Its not just objects that distract me. I waste my time in lots of places. On the internet, watching TV, doing some incredibly unproductive activity often referred to as "chillin", and in various and sundry other avenues of time wasting.

I'm tired of it.

I'm tired of wasting my time.

There are a million and one productive, kingdom oriented sort of things I could be doing at any given moment. Why on earth would I choose to waste a single moment? In the book above Francis Chan mentions a time when he was at a play with his family. He asked his grandmother why she wasn't having a good time and she said "I'm just not sure this is where I want to be when Christ returns. I'ld rather be helping someone or on my knees praying. I don't want Him to return and find me sitting in a theater."

Thats the kind of attitude I want towards my time...not thinking of doing the right things "putting in time" but thinking about everything else as wasting time. That's what I want.

This book inspired part of this although its been brewing for awhile. You need to read this book. Whoever you are. Read it. Now. Its basically like someone read the New Testament and asked "What if Jesus meant what He said?" I'm seriously not like this much. Not since blue like jazz has anything resonated with me this much. And there are no "this guy may be a theological crackpot but he's got some really good things to say" reservations like with Donald Miller or Shane Claiborne. This book is not only revolutionary...its theologically and hermeneutically sound. (pauses while you run not walk to the bookstore)

The obligatory quote:
    "In the parable of the sower, Jesus explained that the seed is the truth (the Word of God). When the seed is flung onto the path, it is heard but quickly stolen away. When the seed is tossed onto the rocks, no roots take hold; there is an appearance of depth and growth because of the good soil, but it is only surface level. When the seed is spread among the thorns, it is received but soon suffocated by life's worries, riches, and pleasures. But when the seed is sown in good soil, it grows, takes root, and produces fruit.
    My caution to you is this: Do not assume you are good soil.
    I think most American churchgoers are the soil that chokes the seed because of all the thorns. Thorns are anything that distracts us from God. When we want God and a bunch of other stuff, then that means we have thorns in our soil. A relationship with God simply cannot grow when money, sins, activities, favorite sports teams, addictions, or commitments are piled on top of it."