Distraction 100

The ABC game can be an entertaining pastime while traveling. My brother Joe, told me about the numbers game that can also be played. You go 1 through 9, then 10, 20, 30, etc., until 100. The numbers can be found as stand-alone numbers or within another number, and the first one to reach 100 wins. My bride and I were playing the numbers game on a trip, and we got down to 100. We were looking long and hard for 100, and she wanted to take a nap but did not want to lose the game, so competition was running high. Well, an old Peter, Paul, and Mary song from the 70’s popped in my mind and I started singing, “Lord I’m one, Lord I’m two, Lord I’m three, Lord I’m four, Lord I’m five hundred miles away from home”. She had never heard the song and looked over at me in puzzlement to see if I was being serious or if I was just making it up. In the same moment that I glanced over at her staring at me, my eyes caught a 100 on a sign outside the car windshield. I raised my hand and pointed to the sign and said “100”, much to her intense frustration. In that moment of distraction it just so happened that we came upon the 100, and I won the match. She accused me of cheating by enticement. We still have a big laugh over the incident with its relation to the song that I suddenly burst out singing, resulting in my winning the match.

A sinner woman followed Jesus into the house of a very religious man. She desired and worshipped Jesus with all her heart, and refused to be distracted by religious propriety. She washed his feet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head. She kissed his feet and poured a very expensive, fragrant ointment on them. Jesus compared her intense worship to the religious man’s cold, deficient, formality, and let her know that all her sins, which were many, were forgiven. He said, “Thy faith has saved thee; go in peace” (Luke 7: 36-50). The lesson for us all here is this: If we are looking for peace, real peace, keep our focus on Jesus, to love him, worship him, and to give our best to him unreservedly, and refuse to be distracted by life’s pressures and cold, empty religious propriety and protocol. Enjoy the King of kings, and live!

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