distracting

Update to the following post:~

I read two articles about the book I have to read, dissing the theology, suggesting a kind of Gnosticism, I feel at peace with being distracted now. I couldn’t put it into words how the book was making me uncomfortable, I thought it was me. I feel vindicated. Still have to read it though. Not at all distracted from my Lord and Saviour, totally focused on Him, today.

I should be reading a book, I should be reading a textbook, required reading for the course I am doing. Instead, I am entering writing contests – http://thewritepractice.com/show-off-writing-contest-spring-edition/ , I am staring at the canvas that wants me to fill it, primed and ready, I am watching fluffy white clouds float past the window on a very cold, bright day. I am distracted.

Distraction can be a good thing when the words aren’t flowing right, or that one elusive word can’t be brought forward on the tongue, distractions can help, a bit odd when mid telephone conversation you suddenly go “strangled” that’s the word I needed and proceed to hang up and continue writing.

Distraction can be bad if the main focus of our energy needs to be in a particular direction but we have trouble zeroing in. Every time I pick up the book it takes me to Bethphage, Calvary, Golgotha, maybe I shouldn’t try and read today. Maybe what is distracting me, is what I should be doing.

Okay so let me distract you from whatever you are doing.

I had ‘one’ of those conversations with someone yesterday. He was a guy selling insurance so I expected a level of non-understanding. He is fully pensionable, has all the right products for himself and his family to ensure money comes in regardless of illness or death, and when he enters retirement he will live comfortably for the rest of his natural life.

I am uninsured, only my car is insured and that’s because of the legal requirement rather than a need to have the safety of insurance, my pension contributions I am told mean I will have 5% of what I need to live on when I retire. My house if it collapses tomorrow will stay collapsed, my belongings will stay in the rubble.

I always knew I didn’t think like “financial wizards”, but this guy was deeply astounded on a personal level, that I gave up my job in the height of the recession, that for two and a half months now I have fed my family on €40, kept out of debt. And for the record, for all you who read this and know, I haven’t reverted to type in any way, shape or form, the new creation turned her back on the past completely.

The guy told me how much he and his family spent on clothes a month, on going out, on groceries. I told him how much I spent on coffee, my one indulgence. We shared information on our mortgages, on loans and credit unions and savings. We shared.

I think I left a lasting impression on him, he’ll probably use me in his sales pitches, but I hope he takes stock of his own life and sees importance is not found at the bottom a bank statement or an insurance document, that food is food regardless of the label and the same goes for clothes.

I have all the insurance and assurance I need, it was given to me for free. Where are you insured? Where do find assurance?