The phrase “aimless distraction” hit home with me.

I’m working through Rick Warren’s 40 Day Spiritual Adventure – The Purpose Driven Life. This is my second time through, but a lot has changed in my life since 2005… retirement, life threatening illnesses, nearly total material loss, death of my faithful dog, and increasing physical limitations. The last seven years have been pretty lean and eternity looks a lot closer now than it did before. In fact, I just checked out some actuarial tables and discovered that I have only a 50/50 chance of living for another 14 years until age 86.

So the big question for me is “What do I do with the rest of my life… the remaining time I have here on earth?” It’s a big question. And that’s when the phrase “aimless distraction” hit me.

Warren is talking about the benefits of a Purpose Driven Life (PDL) and notes: “Knowing your purpose focuses your life.” He goes on to quote Henry David Thoreau’s observation that people without purpose live lives of “quiet desperation” and notes that today a better description would be “aimless distraction.”

Aimless distraction… playing “Trivial Pursuit” with my life? It’s true. I spend way too much time on the internet, playing Sudoku, and watching foreign Netflix movies. Those were lean year distractions for me. I need to look forward to the next seven fat years… I need to prepare for eternity. And that’s no “aimless distraction.”

But how? Stay tuned.