Today’s Greatest Temptation: Giving God Our Attention

The stories in today’s mass readings give us a lesson: The greatest gift we can give God is our attention. That was true in biblical times, and it is especially true now with all of the many distractions we have in our midst: social media, online shopping, texting, streaming TV and movies, YouTube, apps, games, and our many devices that keep us endlessly distracted and entertained. 

Make no mistake – distraction is how the Enemy is winning us over. It's our greatest temptation in today's society.

Even our church has jumped on the bandwagon of digital content – and it keeps expanding. There’s Hallow, Formed, Ascension Press, and Word on Fire digital, for example. While all of these are modern digital ways to keep us connected to our faith, we can easily just keep ingesting tons of content without really giving Jesus the gift of our attention and silence.

There is great temptation in our midst to keep our attention on the content, the apps, and audio and video and not really give our attention to God. 

There is also great temptation in being too busy in our society. Having every night booked up with activities that keep us occupied – even good things like service and ministry – can make us more distracted, exhausted, and ultimately reduce our attention on God. 

Recently I noticed that pattern in my life. I had one too many activities going on each week and was feeling exhausted. Then on the nights I was free, I was shuffling from app to video to TV to phone internet browsing for nearly two hours every night and missing opportunities to connect more deeply with God. So I inevitably cut one activity out of my life, and incorporated spiritual reading and the Rosary into my nightly routine to limit the online content. A step in the right direction, I hope.

So let today’s lesson lead you to think about how you may give more of your attention to God. It’s the greatest gift you have to give Him!