Last month I had the privilege of preaching the missions convention for one of our Fellowship’s most exciting churches, First Assembly in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Because I became distracted, getting there turned out to be somewhat costly and time-consuming.

My Saturday flight took me from Springfield to Chicago’s O’Hare International airport. Upon arriving at the gate, I checked the flight monitors and discovered there was an earlier flight leaving for Cedar Rapids. I walked quickly to gate F4 and was added to the stand-by list.

The gate agent called my name and I was on the earlier flight. Within minutes of buckling our seat belts, the gate agent came on the plane and announced that “due to weight restrictions and weather conditions” they were looking for three individuals to voluntarily deplane and take the next flight. The incentive – a free round-trip flight anywhere in the continental United States – anytime in the next twelve months!

I volunteered quicker than you could say, “Go Buckeyes!” United Airlines gave me a free round-trip voucher and a seat on the next flight, the one on which I had originally been scheduled. Great deal – free ticket and arrive at the original time!

Knowing I had ninety minutes until my flight, I went to a restaurant. The soup hit the spot, I did some computer work, returned a few calls, and found an exciting college football game to watch. Unfortunately, I lost track of time. When I checked the clock, it was fifteen minutes until the scheduled flight departure of 6:10. Walking briskly to gate F11, I arrived at exactly 6:00 p.m., only to learn that the boarding was closed. I tried my best to persuasively and kindly talk my way onto the flight, but to no avail.

Here’s the kicker – the flight I missed was the last United flight to Cedar Rapids that evening. What’s more – the earliest flight in the morning could not get me to Cedar Rapids in time to preach. And what’s more – no other airlines had seats available.

My only option – rent a car! Four hours and $200 later, I was in my hotel room. I must admit – driving from Chicago to Cedar Rapids in a rain storm and having to rent a car took a bit of the luster off of the free ticket!

It is so easy to become distracted – to lose focus! It has happened to me more often that I’d like to admit.

Since this experience, I have made a conscious decision to be more focused and less distracted. I’m practicing these five action steps:

• Make a prioritized list of what I need to do and stick with it until I’m done.
• Try to do fewer things excellently rather than more things with mediocrity.
• Stay focused on the tasks at hand — In other words, wherever I am I need to be completely there.
• Ask myself, “Do I have everything that belongs to me?” before leaving a hotel room, restaurant, or an airplane.
• Invite the Lord and my wife to remind me when they see me being distracted.

To finish strong I need to minimize distractions and maximize focus!

If you can identify with me on this, I’d like to hear from you – how are you working to overcome distractions and stay more focused?

This entry was posted on Friday, November 30th, 2007 at 11:48 am and is filed under Encouragement. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.