FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (April 22) - Police are looking for a pregnant woman they say tried to rob a North Carolina bank at gunpoint but left empty-handed after answering her cell phone. Fayetteville police spokeswoman Teresa Chance said Wednesday the woman had a handgun and demanded money when she entered a Carter Bank & Trust branch at 9:43 a.m. Tuesday. But she got distracted when her cell phone rang. Police said she began talking to the caller and left the bank without taking any money. No one was hurt."
Hmmmm...talk about getting distracted! Talk about losing focus! Good grief. I can't help but wonder what the conversation on the phone was about? Was it a friend calling to talk her out of the robbery?Did she receive some bad news or good news that caused her to reevaluate what she was doing? Did she turn to go out to the car to look for something that was brought up in the phone call and "wake up," so to speak, when she got outside? Did she just get caught up in a conversation and forget what she had been doing? Whatever caused it...the phone call distracted her and a robbery was prevented. That was good.
But what about when we get distracted and it's not good? What about when we are in the process of raising our kids, or pursuing an education to better address what God has called us to do, or tenaciously engaged in a task for the betterment of God's Kingdom...and we get distracted? Oh...it could be that we become enamored with a hobby, or get caught up in gossip, or maybe we mire ourselves in complaints about something we don't like, or maybe we just stop doing what God wants in order to do what we want for awhile. Whatever the cause...we become distracted, unfocused and – tragically – ineffective. When that happens...there is a loss. Not only for us, but also for those we are failing to adequately engage in the gospel.
Jesus needs you...He needs me...by choice. He has chosen to use us to be couriers of the gospel. He has purposely left the challenge of reaching our neighborhood, our city, and our world to us...and He needs us to be focused.
Oh...count on it...Satan will be "calling" you in one form or another. But it won't be to avert a theft...it will be to create one. He wants to steal you...to steal me...to steal as many as he can from being and doing what God desires. On what are you focused? Is Christ in that picture? Are you in a position to be used effectively for Christ?
"But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:13, 14
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