Midweek Connection
Greetings Urban Life family,
If you go to Google and ask about the attention span of a gold fish, it will tell you this:
The average attention span for adults in 2013 was only 8 seconds
The average attention span for adults in 2000 was 12 seconds
The average attention span of a gold fish is 9 seconds
Conclusion: People now have a shorter attention span than a goldfish.
It goes on to say that attention span is the amount of concentrated time on a task without becoming distracted. Most educators and psychologists agree that the ability to focus attention on a task is crucial for the achievement of one’s goals. It’s no surprise attention spans have been decreasing over the past decade with the increase in external stimulation. The average length watched of a single internet video is about 2.7 minutes.
This data comes from the National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine.
So why is this, the topic of discussion this week?
Well, because it is an alarming revelation that people are now so easily distracted that it makes it very easy for the enemy of all of mankind to keep millions of people on the planet from thinking about the reality of eternity. Even when ministers and churches like Urban Life, bring up the subject of ‘What happens after death’; we basically have only 8 seconds to hold someone’s attention.
Over the past few years we have posted over 1200 video and audio clips, along with the release of several devotional books, but the best we can hope for, according to these latest statistics, is that most people will spend less than three minutes watching the videos, listening to the podcast or reading the books. That’s if we can hold their attention long enough to get them to engage at all.
Wow! What can we say in 8 seconds that will hold someone’s attention about their eternal destiny? How do you communicate the seriousness of being eternally separated from God? How do you get the message across, to the millions of people who hold the title “Christian,” that their hearts are far from God and they are not on their way to heaven? How do you explain that living a double life of willful sin, unforgiveness and disobedience, will not qualify them to enter the Kingdom of Heaven? How do you make it clear that just because they recited the sinner’s prayer, it does not mean that the Spirit of God lives within them?
I tried to think of a few phrases and the best I could come up with was, “You’ve got 8 seconds to eternity!”
Or consider this question, “If you had 8 seconds to live, what would you do?”
Perhaps these are the type of questions we need to ask to get our family and friends to STOP and THINK about their lives and what follows AFTER this life. Maybe this is what it will take for Christian Believers to STOP and examine themselves.
The Apostle Paul wrote, “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.” ---2 Corinthians 13:5 (NKJV)
This is why we are so thankful for the Holy Spirit within us. He helps us to stay focused and to not become so easily distracted by the cares of this life, the demonically inspired entertainment or the fear inducing news about wars, pestilence or religious heretics.
The Lord brought a powerful word of exhortation through our brother Michael Smith last Sunday, about staying focused in spite of the distractions of this era. We just wanted to rehearse that exhortation in this week’s letter.
As we gather to pray this Friday evening and again on Sunday morning, we are seeking God for wisdom in how to break past the distractions, to impart seeds of His Word and promises.
In everyday life, each of you has been given an assignment by the Lord Himself. On our jobs, in the neighborhood, in our schools, and in our families, God is giving us priceless moments to impart the reality of eternity to people who don’t really know Him.
In spite of the distractions of demons or life itself, we are trusting God, that somewhere in those 8 second intervals, we will be able to impart, declare and demonstrate the good news (the Gospel) of Jesus Christ and how He opened the way for us to have eternal life in the Kingdom of God.
Very soon we’ll have some postcard invitations available so you can invite people to the film about Heaven on Sunday, November 9, 2014. In the meantime, please submit the names of people that you are praying for as we anticipate this time of sharing the Gospel. We’re praying for all of the names on the prayer list when we gather this weekend. We’re simply trusting God.
For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. ---1 Corinthians 1:21 (NKJV)
We hope you can join us in this Kingdom work!
It's all for the harvest,
Chris and Carol Green
