Saturday, September 8, 2012

DISTRACTIONS

These One A Days are added to daily.  A thank you to all of you who have gone back and read all of the posts since the beginning.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEND THIS BLOG TO A FRIEND COPY and paste THE FOLLOWING URL
http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/
              AND THEN PASTE IN AN EMAIL.

       There are over 1100 stories and commentaries on this blog that began Nov 24, 2009. It is added to daily.
Click on http://wyrickswritings.blogspot.com to read selected Sermons from over 50 years of Rev. Wyrick's ministry.

Yogi Berra loved to distract batters.  One afternoon when the New York Yankees were playing the Milwaukee Braves Yogi sped up his commentary and went after Hank Aaron's concentration with a barrage of verbal fast balls.

       "Henry," he began, "you're holding the bat wrong.  You're supposed to hold it so you read the trademark." 

       As he was about to say more there was the sound of bat hitting ball and the ball took off at an exceeding fast pace all the way into the left field stands.

       After Hank Aaron had rounded the bases and crossed home place he looked over at Yogi and said, "I didn't come up to bat to read."

       In the game of life...what did you come to the bat to be or do or become?  Are you easily distracted?  A slave to a new thought or decision or temptation before you have even begun to digest your last thought, decision or temptation?

       Are you a bouncing ball whose direction is directed by what you bounce off of rather than by what you created?

       Is this the way to achieve fiscal, spiritual, emotional, mental contentment? Would you be better off if you were a person who committed yourself to the worthwhile rather than willy nilly let yourself be constantly overwhelmed by the worthless.

       How are your pile of distractions these days?  Living proof that you are the master of not following through.

       Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev used to tell of a time when there was a wave of petty thefts in the Soviet Union.

       To curtail this the authorities put up guards around the factories.

       At one timberworks in Leningrad, the guard knew the workers in the factory very well. The first evening, out came Pyotr Petrovich with a wheelbarrow and, on the wheelbarrow, a great bulky sack with a suspicious-looking object inside.        "All right, Petrovich," said the guard, "what have you got there?"

       "Oh, just sawdust and shavings," Petrovich replied.

       "Come on," the guard said, "I wasn't born yesterday. Tip it out."

       And out came nothing but sawdust and shavings. So he was allowed to put it all back again and continue home.

       When the same thing happened every night of the week the guard became frustrated.

       Finally, his curiosity overcame his frustration. "Petrovich," he said, "I know you. Tell me what you're smuggling out of here, and I'll let you go."      "Wheelbarrows, my friend, " said Petrovich, "wheelbarrows."

       It's amazing what you can accomplish with focus or its lack.

       And then there is...Procrastination, the brother of distraction, the killer of contentment...fact.  Having a Damocles sword hanging overhead is no fun...fact.  Conquering distractions is better than being conquered by them...fact. 

       The first problem with distractions is being able to tell the difference.  Are they a legitimate opportunity or a lovely but impediment distraction?

        Are you overwhelmed by meetings?  When I was in the pastorate full time an over abundance of meetings did sometimes become a distraction.  If you like to treat early morn as a meeting time with your Lord in prayer but have to check you email out first, that is a distraction. 

       One, two, three, four, five, etc.  To conquer distractions.  Learn how to count.  Start applying numbers in front of things.  Don't do number three before number one.  It messes up your mind.  It messes up your day.  It messes up your goals.  It messes you up.

       If you were walking the streets of a city what would distract you first.  The sound of a coin dropping or a cricket chirping?  The answer, of course is what you are alive to.  Mother nature or  City Bank.

       Do you aim at nothing and hit it with accuracy?  That's what distractions cause us to do. 

       If someone stood before you and asked you to carry a cross with you wherever you went today...would you look at them as if you thought they were crazy?  Would you think about it and decide it would be more of a distraction than a message?  If you actually did, after the embarrassment, how would it affect you for the rest of your life?  How would it affect those who saw you do it?

       I am not suggesting you do it. I am suggesting that life is full of distractions and some of them are good and some just distractions...and that is what we spend a lifetime doing...learning the difference.

And where we want to put our focus...and...

       It's hard to stay focused, isn't it.  You just checked your Twitter and email for the umptenth time since an hour ago.  You stopped to finish that article on the sports page.  You might as well have stopped because you couldn't get it out of your mind.  You tried to do three things at once and basically messed up all three.

       Pragmatism vs. passion.  Doing what may not turn you on but nevertheless is a job that needs doing.  Doing what excites you with so much excitement you can't stop doing it as you get better at doing it.

       Decisions. Decisions.  Decisions.  Distractions.  Distractions.  Distractions.

       I have fractured more bones than I like to count.  I have recovered.  I have fractured sometimes my life too often as well.  I pray to recover from this sometimes lack of focus by enhancing my focus by focusing. 

              But it's easier to drift...which is why we do it...the distraction of drifting as against making decisions.

       How can you get rid of distractions?  When you really get tired of the dismal discouraging results that being a slave to your distractions brings about.  This wandering from one distraction to another distraction leaving a trail that looks like a man who went wandering in the dark without a compass or the those old sea captains who crashed on an unchartered shore. 

       You have to know where you want to go.  You have to get out your compass and set your course and your sails. 

       When I went to college and then Seminary, I had a goal, a focus point...so I was not often distracted.

       When I ran a cross country race I usually paid attention to where I was going and finished the race in a reasonable position.  One race in Blacksburg, Va. my mind wandered...I was in the middle of the pack on a trail that did a lot of curving.

       I came to a cross road of sorts...I wasn't paying attention...I was distracted...and I was probably the first runner on that course to get lost...I did make it back to the finish line after discovering my error.  But look at all the time and effort I wasted and my goal of a good finish gone down the drain.

       Do you enjoy it when you are tired?  Distraction does that...it adds to your fatigue...all the wasted motion and energy while getting nowhere fast.

       Put it this way.  Every action creates a reaction and this is true whether your action makes sense or no sense at all.  Whether you are simply reacting without thinking and a distraction waste time and looking back you think, "Well, I could certainly have used that time better."

       What's the solution to the problems distraction brings.  Well, first realize that if your aren't a part of a solution you are probably a greater part of the problem.

              A suggestion. Find some storage space in your mind and store the following " “You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks.”  or " It is wise to direct your anger towards problems, not people; to focus your energies on answers — not excuses. – William Arthur Ward or " “The ability to apply your mind steadily and exclusively to one subject at a time is a mark of superior power and essential to really great achievement.” - Grenville Kleiser or " Be deeply interested in what you are doing, and ignore vagrant ideas.
Winston Churchill

       In the reading these words did I have your complete attention or did I momentarily lose you because of some distracting thought.

       Ah well, who said being perfect was easy?

 

+++++++++++++++++

       CHURCH BOOK CLUBS ARE USING REV. WYRICK'S 9TH BOOK "The Spiritual Abraham Lincoln."  If you would like to purchase it at a special price...
       It is available on amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and many other book sites.

     A new quote  (posted SEPT 5) below from Rev. Wyrick's 9th book THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN (read the rave reviews below the quote)

Many were quite willing to see him permanently gone, not just to Washington but from this earth. 

Hate letters assailed on a regular basis. 

Finally a plot to assassinate him in Baltimore was uncovered, and by repeatedly reminding him, “You can hardly be a good President if you are a dead President,” his friends were able to convince him to secretly depart Harrisburg. 

Accompanied by Alan Pinkerton and W. H. Laman in one lone car pulled by a single locomotive, no lights and telegraph lines cut, he came through Baltimore at 3:30 A.M. dressed in disguise. 

Many other lonely middle-of-the-night times lay ahead.

       "Positive, powerful utterances...skillfully enhancing our understanding and appreciation of Lincoln while revealing the Divine source of his strength."

       Lt. Colonel C.A. Olsen (Ret.) Asbury College (Professor Ret.)

       "The Spiritual Abraham Lincoln is an extremely well written book that investigates what might be termed the spiritual side of President Lincoln. It's both scholarly and very readable. I came away impressed at Mr. Wyrick's portrayal of the President and with an altered and enlarged vision of the man:'

       William Hoffman, Award winning fiction writer; author of Blood and Guile, and Wild Thorn

       "Wyrick has authored a wonderful examination of the spirituality of one of American history's most devoutly religious leaders...a pleasant and readable book that has a rich depth of information."

              Maynard Pittendreigh Presbyterian minister

        "When it comes to invoking religion in support of any of their decisions, politicians need to sit at the feet of Abraham Lincoln. Reinhold Niebuhr once called him 'America's greatest theologian.' Why so great? Because he invariably distinguished between human works and the works of the Almighty. As Wyrick says, 'He wore the mantle of humility easily: because he was more impressed with what God was doing in the world than with what he, president of the United States in the midst of an awful crisis, was doing. That is why in his last major speech he distinguished between both human causes in the Civil War and the Almighty's 'own purposes.' Lincoln would have agreed that it is better to leave God-talk out of politics than to decorate human proposals with divinity. This is a book for our American time. Through his careful study of Lincoln's career, Wyrick compels us to remember that piety belongs in politics only when piety transcends politics."

       Dr. Donald W. Shriver

       Emeritus professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Author of An Ethic for Enemies: Forgiveness in Politics

        "V. Neil Wyrick's fine work allows the reader to appreciate Abraham Lincoln's Christian commitment and his prophetic role in American history. Should have a wide readership."

       James H. Smylie Professor of Church History (Ret.) Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Virginia

       "Neil Wyrick's The Spiritual Abraham Lincoln should be read by anyone attempting to understand the man who was probably the most complex person to ever hold the office of president of the United States. Dr. Wyrick is intent on demonstrating that the spirituality so often expressed in Lincoln's writings and speeches was not merely lip service to a Deity, but rather expressions of a profound faith in a real God. It was this faith that provided the wisdom, compassion, insight and sometimes steel that Lincoln would need in full measure as he led the United States through the Civil War. Dr. Wyrick's clear and unpretentious style of presentation is very much in keeping with the character ofhis subject, and in so doing, Wyrick makes his point very well that Lincoln, his beliefs, and the faith that formed them, are as relevant to a troubled America in 2004 as they were in 1863."

       Daniel Allen Butler, author of "Unsinkable"; The Full Story of the RMS Titanic, The Lusitania and The Age o f Cunard

 
QUOTE BELOW IS FROM WYRICK'S WRITINGS

          There is no other organization in the world like the church.  It is a breed unto itself.  It is a congregation of sinners, not a country club for saints.  To become a member you have to profess your unworthiness. 

CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING TO TAKE YOU THERE


      (These are selected sermons from over 50 years of ministry and as a worldwide evangelist Rev. Wyrick preached them all the United States and all over the world)
                        +++++++++++++++++++  

            CLICK ON  www.go60.us   IT WILL TAKE YOU A NEW WEBSITE FOR SENIORS....click on "Voice" on the home page and then on the list of authors click on Neil Wyrick

Recent articles Rev. Wyrick has written for this web site are:  REFLECTIONS


·         Here Comes Summer (July 2012)

·         Spring (May 2012)

·         Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow (April 2012)

·         Wayward and Windy (April 2012)

 

Just remember that “the pain of discipline will cost you pennies, whereas the pain of regret will cost you millions.”

++++++++++++++++++

How can we keep our faith from being a weak and fruitless thing?  How can we not be foolish little men and women groveling in the dark shadows of overeager egos. 


          Well, first we must do more than just pray.  We must believe in our own prayers.

+++++++++++++++++++

Anxiety out of proportion makes us become like a centipede trying to put his best foot forward.

++++++++++++++++++

        It's an old joke, I went to the doctor and I said, “Doc, when I do this, it hurts.” And the doctor said, “Then don't do that.”

++++++++++++++++++

        How many things have you been anxious about that were things which you knew before you got into them were probably going to create some problems for you?  And if you asked your doctor, or your minister, or common sense and your God, all of them would have said, “Don’t do that.”

++++++++++++++++++++

        To buy into the community of accountability we have to realize that like bikers we are divided into two categories.  Those who have fallen and those who will fall for anything. None of us are perfect.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

          Think on it this way, some philosopher of old wrote it and it endures because there is so much truth in it… every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty

++++++++++++++++++++++

      Some of the sermon titles posted recently


+++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Before you decide to purchase or not purchase his book THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN.... view his Award Winning One Man Dramatization of Lincoln (since he wrote the script for this drama it will give you an insight into what you will find in the book itself)

Available on Amazon.com in printed form and on Amazon Kindle Books. and at many other sites

TO VIEW THE LINCOLN One Man DRAMA and 3 other dramas; Ben Franklin, Martin Luther & Charles Wesley

click on the following URL

http://www.speakerneil.com/

      ++++++++++++++++++++++

 

BELOW ARE MORE QUOTES FROM NEIL'S RECENTLY POSTED SERMONS

       ++++++++++++++++++

A QUOTE FROM THOUGHTS POSTED ON MY OTHER BLOG WYRICK'S WRITINGS ON SUNDAY APRIL 15. ENTITILED

 

       Two stores faced each other across a very busy street.  Their owners were in constant competition with each other.  One day, the owner of one store put out a sign that read – If you want it, we have it!

Almost immediately the other owner put out a sign –If we don’t have it, you don’t need it!

 

A QUOTE FROM THOUGHTS POSTED ON MY OTHER BLOG WYRICK'S WRITINGS ON THURSDAY APRIL 13TH. ENTITILED

WHO ARE YOU?

NO…WHOSE ARE YOU?

       Who are you?  Whose are you?

You influence and are influenced according to the answer you give.     

Are you are the flavor of the month because you are determined to be like everyone else no matter what?  If so, consider being more independent in our thinking and actions...because God wants you to grow up.

It may be easier being someone's shadow but wouldn't you really rather be a sun. 

 

       QUOTE FROM THOUGHTS  POSTED ON WYRICK'S WRITINGS THURSDAY  APRIL 5 FROM THOUGHT ENTITLED "Who Are You?  Whose Are You?"

       This is an old quote, and a romantic one as well but, nevertheless, can anyone say of you, “I love you not because of who you are, but because of who I am when I am with you.

            QUOTE FROM THOUGHT PIECE POSTED ON WYRICK'S WRITINGS TUESDAY APRIL 3 FROM THOUGHT ENTITLED

" WHEN A NATION STRAYS TOO FAR FROM BEING MORAL IT IS WELL ON IT'S WAY TO BECOMING A MESS

        James 4:17

To him therefore who knows to do good, and doesn’t do it, to him it is sin.

        Someone once said: “A belief is what you hold, a conviction is what holds you!”

        So what holds you, constructs you, leads you with a push when needed?

       Quotes POSTED ON WYRICK'S WRITING THURSDAY MARCH 29th THOUGHTS ENTITLED WHO ARE YOU?

NO…WHOSE ARE YOU?

        In a Peanuts cartoon strip Peppermint Patty is shown talking to Charlie Brown.

“Guess what, Chuck? It’s the first day of school and I got sent to the principal’s office.

And it’s your fault!”

Charlie Brown responds, “My fault? How could it be my fault? Why do you say everything is my fault?”

To which she declares, “You’re my friend, aren’t you, Chuck? You should have been a better influence on me.”

In the comics, it’s funny… but in real life it’s much more complicated.

       Would you like to read the entire thought piece?  Then... TO TAKE YOU TO THE WYRICK'S WRITING'S SITE

                                        click on the following


          Yes, God loves you the way you are but he loves you too much to let you stay that way.

+++++++++++++++++++++++

      Click on the URL below to WATCH NEIL IN HIS WORLD FAMOUS ONE MAN DRAMATIZATIONS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, BEN FRANKLIN, CHARLES WESLEY AND MARTIN LUTHER


       To Order and Read Neil's 9th book THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN

       GO TO amazon.com

       QUOTES ABOUT THIS WONDERFUL INSPIRING INFORMATIVE book

       STILL RECEIVING RAVE REVIEWS 8 YEARS AFTER IT'S PUBLICATION.

      

++++++++++++++++++

No comments:

Post a Comment