There are so many distractions which may catch our attention and slowly wear us out from maintaining energy and focus on what it is we are truly called to do and be as his servants.

We may start to chase random ideas or tugs on our time scampering all about us on short little escapades which really don’t go anywhere.  They tear across the yards of endless possibilities and draw us into a chase which only leads to dead-ends.  They wear the marks of hopeful little breakthroughs to exuberant life but dash up well positioned fortresses instead into places we do not want to follow, dashing our hope, drained.

In these abrupt endings we discern that these hunted captors of our hearts and minds turn out to be cheeky challenges we learn to dismiss lest we climb on branches unconnected to the Branch of Righteousness in Christ, lest we slip and slide on bark covered outposts woodenly resistant to the message we would faithfully profess, lest we lose our footing on the solid ground of his transformation in our lives just so we may temporarily climb a ladder of worldly success to heights which go nowhere in the end.

These trendy ideas or playful diversions disappear with mocking peering around unending corners which fail to bring us to the destinations of wholesome contentment and joy we had hoped they might lead.  They lead us on trips of elusive trails lined with misguided missions up trunks which reach for rewards of human praise not commissioned by the One who helps us discern which trees to embrace or avoid for our own good.

Empty laughter at their joke stokes our self-reproach and reveals the truth of our inability to find lasting satisfaction on any detour which takes us away from the precepts of the word. In the light of understanding,  the chitter chatter of chipmunks is heard for what it is. These futile detractors from fullness and mature steadfastness in Christ watch from the side-tracks of temptations won with twitching tales of many more who’ve chased their own tails unsatisfied …  and we pant for renewed focus – left in retreat, defeated.

We turn to face the futility of the chase for anything but him, far above our earth bound hopes and dreams, waiting to be caught in devoted hearts as the One who fills our every need.

We finally learn to let distractions go their merry way and focus again on knowing him and him alone, of going where he calls to follow chipped and broken lives right where we are and see them mend; of growing into falling footsteps of his lead on an open wide and narrow way which tends to that which breaks his heart and chases off the months of hunger and thirst, either physical or spiritual, in those he sends our way – never a distraction.

‘Lord, may there be no chips on our shoulders regarding the choices of involvements we have made which do not lead us into deeper truth regarding your love for us and others. We want to follow only you.  May there be no monkish separation from the world, nor headlong chases of the things which tempt us to run off course and weary us to the bone with the darting, dashing nature of double-mindedness.  We only want to pursue the face of Yeshua, Jesus, in whose name we pray.

Where we have been left empty-handed by pursuits which led nowhere; where we have been bereft of focussed fellowship with you because of toodling off to do whatever has caught our eye and beckoned a chase, we stand still now to stop the flurry, to calm the hurry, to rest in new beginnings remaking us according to your word and Spirit, not the questionable merits of so much which comes across our paths then hides, denying us the promises it has made. 

If there is a precious servant of yours feeling foolish, caught looking up at little chipmunk choices which have led astray … wash away regret and let them know your love to lead them step by step, yard by yard, chasing only breezes of your Spirit grace to set the pace and place of your determination through the servant leadership we experience with you. Amen.” 

“But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”         (Phil. 3: 13b -14)