Mirroring the opening line from Celebration of Discipline, Nathan Foster proposed a new version: ​“Distraction is the curse of our age. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of efficient people, or busy people, but for present people.”

We’re all aware of this, aren’t we? There’s a growing sense — and a growing body of research — that mental health in modern societies is declining. Our frantic lives and fractured thoughts, fueled in no small part by the supercomputer in our pockets, is impacting our overall well being.

What’s the solution? Shall we make firm resolutions to use our smartphones less, switch to paper planners, or spend more time outside? Those are means — probably good ones. But means alone won’t sustain us for long. Real change requires vision to precede intention and means. We need a vision of abundant life and of the Abundant One, whose voice is gentle and kind (as Nate Foster and Fil Anderson talk about in this week’s podcast). 

With that vision clearly before us we can turn to the means, foremost of which is being present to God. (Frank Laubach provides practical ways to do this.) And from that place of abiding in Jesus we can battle distraction by deciding on a dozen little daily Yeses and Nos (mostly Nos) from ​“the Center of our life,” as Thomas Kelly puts it.