Distraction: The Purpose KillerUzorak

In my third year of college, I had the opportunity to help lead and organize a game for an event called Junior Jam. To help you understand the scale of this event: approximately 800-1000 kids (ages 8-12) would all descend upon the college campus for a 12-hour day full of activities. Hundreds of churches, leaders, and students would organize the day. There would be food, speakers, a concert, and the main attraction: 4-6 “games” that tied in with that year’s theme.

That year, our theme was purity. Our theme song was “Be careful little eyes what you see.” Each game station took a specific body part and formed an activity around it. There were the eyes, the hands (be careful what you do), the feet (be careful where you go), and the ears (be careful what you hear). We were in charge of the ears.

Our game was simple, and (in my opinion) kind of brilliant. Let me explain how it worked.

The large group of 200 kids was divided into their section leaders (usually 1-2 leaders per 8-10 kids). These kids would have already spent a few hours with their leader so they would have gotten to know them and, hopefully, recognize their voice. 

We separated the students from the leaders by placing all of the students in a giant circle in the middle of the gym and placing the leaders in smaller circles around them (each about 20 feet away). Two-hundred kids in the middle, 20 leaders surrounding them.

Before we separated them, we gave each leader a recognizable sound (a roar, a horn, a word, etc.) and had them share it with their group. The task of the game was for the students to listen for their leader’s sound and make their way over to them. The brilliant part, and where the real fun came in, was that all of the leaders would make their sounds simultaneously while all of the kids were blindfolded. The first leader to have all his/her kids reach them won the game.

As you can imagine, the scene was absolute chaos! But even more impressive was that it worked. A number of teams found their leader. And the kids had a very concrete example of what you're going to learn about through this series.

What those kids faced is similar to what we face every day on our journeys of faith and purpose. We get bombarded with conflicting messages, driving us in all sorts of directions, while feeling as if we are blindfolded along the way. 

This thing kills our purpose more often than fear and doubt and laziness combined. What these kids fought to find their direction is what we must fight to find ours as well: distraction.