Overly Occupied

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. ³⁹ She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. ⁴⁰ But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, ⁴² but few things are needed—or indeed one.  Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Lk 10:38-41 NIV)

Biblical usage of distracted:

1. Strong's G4049 – perispaō to draw around, to draw away, distract
2. metaph.

1.     to be driven about mentally, to be distracted

2.     to be over-occupied, too busy, about a thing

From Vines: lit., "to draw around" (peri), "draw away, distract," is used in the Passive Voice in the sense of being over-occupied about a thing, to be "cumbered,"

 

Definition of sidetracked in the Online Dictionary. ... to distract or be distracted from a main subject or topic.

 

We can be distracted, sidetracked, by many things in life. They can be necessary things, good things, bad things, things that happened, didn’t happen, will happen in the future, or will never happen. The problem is, they distract us from the main thing, consume our thoughts, emotions, and energy and cause us to act and respond in a way that is not consistent with who we are or where we are going. We will totally miss what God is saying to us, doing in our lives, or what He wants us to join with Him in, when we are captured and imprisoned  by the side issues of life that are designed to distract us and shut us down.