Where Your Mind Wanders

Exodus 20:3 (CEB) · The Good Life

“You must have no other gods before me.” – Exodus 20:3 (CEB)

Not long ago I walked into a museum exhibit and got pulled away before I finished it. I came back, started again, got pulled away again. The third time through, I finally made it, but I had spent the whole visit half-present, my mind tracking logistics instead of what was right in front of me.

Our attention has a default. Notice where your mind goes in the unguarded moments, at a red light, in line, lying awake. It rarely drifts toward God on its own. It drifts toward what is loudest, what is unfinished, what we are quietly anxious about. That is not a character flaw. It is information. The first commandment isn’t mainly about idols on a shelf. It is about the One who gets first place in our hearts, and most of us have to choose that on purpose.

Loving God, you know where my attention runs when no one is steering it. Gently call it back to you, and become again the One I love most. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.