Overcoming Mental Distractions: The Malware of the Mind
This chapter explores the distractions of a busy mind by comparing it to a computer overwhelmed with malware. Through a personal anecdote, the speaker illustrates how these mental distractions hinder our ability to connect with God amidst life's chaos.
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Episode 007 – Tell Your Monkeys to be Quiet!
If you’re like me, you’ve got a busy mind, always rushing on to the next thing; full of ideas, plans, questions, fears, and irritations. Or maybe your thoughts are constantly caught up in worry about the future, or maybe regrets from the past? Or do you find swirling anxiety cluttering your head? Well, all that noise is an obstacle in your life and your pursuit of Jesus. It’s time to tell your monkeys to be quiet.
Show Notes
Show notes will not be a transcript. At least not now. You’ll find a few key bullet points, any scriptures references, as well as any other books or resources referenced.
The noise in our minds can be compared to computer viruses that have gotten installed in a computer, and are now taking up precious processing power working for someone else’s agenda. For the computer to serve you well, those viruses need to be removed.
The way we think about God contributes to our problem:
Jesus word to the Samaritan woman (John 4:23) tell us that we don’t have to go to a special sacred place in order to access God. That’s good news!
In the upper room, Jesus told the disciples that they would know that they had an ongoing intimate connection with him. (John 14:20) This means we don’t have to wait for a special time to connect with God.
God is right where we are, whatever we are doing. God is with us, and the whole of life is God’s temple. That’s great news!
One of our chief obstacles to experiencing the reality of God’s presence is the noise in our heads. The Buddhist tradition has a clever name for all this mental noise: The Monkey Mind. A perfect mental image of the chittering distraction we carry around with us. We need silence!
Jesus affirmed Mary’s desire to sit quietly at his feet.
Stillness is hard. It’s a mental habit that we build
Stillness comes in a variety of forms.
Full-focus stillness.
Awareness of presence in the midst of life is also a form of stillness.
Sometimes we need full-focus stillness where we carve out times of solitude to be present to God. Many times we just need to practice “carried stillness,” the ongoing awareness of God’s presence in the midst of our day.
Greg Boyd:
“Whatever is going on in our environment we must remain aware that one other thing is also going on–and it’s the single most important thing in any given moment: namely, we are submerged in God’s loving presence.” (Present Perfect, p.89-90)
