The Great Distraction

By Greg Olney

D- Distraction

I- Implementation Problems

S- Seduction

T- Truth Avoidance

R- Robbing Productivity

A- Addictive Cravings

C- Competing Priorities

T- Time Mismanagement

I'm revealing these distractors so that everyone can see them for what they are and from where they draw us. Let me make something ab

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: Nov 27, 2023
• ISBN: 9798890416568

Greg Olney

Greg Olney has authored books centered around change management: The Transition Game, Commitment to Change, Why Change Fails, and The Restoration Process. Greg founded a business called GONATELLE, which focuses on needs assessment and transition to the next echelon while understanding lessons learned and executing solutions. His purpose is to effect change in others so that they can do great things.

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The Great Distraction

What Draws You Away from Your Intended Purpose?

Greg Olney

The Great Distraction

Trilogy Christian Publishers

A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Trinity Broadcasting Network

2442 Michelle Drive, Tustin, CA 92780

Copyright © 2023 by Greg Olney

Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB), Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org. Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.TM Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.TM Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. Public domain.

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Trilogy Disclaimer: The views and content expressed in this book are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect the views and doctrine of Trilogy Christian Publishing or the Trinity Broadcasting Network.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 000-0-0000-0000-0

ISBN 000-0-0000-0000-0 (ebook)

Acknowledgments

Kristina Olney, Cathy Olney, Nathan & Gaby Olney, Danielle Johnston, Rachel Olney, Mike Stefano, Denise & Scott Weisheit, Zane & Vanessa Sawyer, Rayann & Ned Webster, The Webster family, Troy & Melissa McGuire, Jenny & Mark Loomis, Mark & LaTanya Alspaugh, Dan Loomis, Melanie & Sean Oliver, Myriam & David Bourbinay, Velma & Mike Hannah, Gayane Voskanyan, Brandy Nole, Linda Carlberg, Ann & Mitch Fischer, Lynda & Don Suwyn, Jennifer & Tim Strobel, Crystal & Glenn Hardin, Kim & David Schepperle, Candace Schepperle, the Schepperle family, Cathy & Duane Roquemore, Joe Lawson, Jacqueline & Roger Richardson, Steve Wack, Pat Roy, and the whole Roy family.

The God of wonders.

Foreword

As a pastor in Southern California, I have been in church ministry since 1998, and over the years, I have seen humanity in all its harmful forms—brokenness, addiction, depression—as well as the opposite—wholeness, freedom, and hope. I have not only seen humanity, but I have experienced people in their struggles and through their victories. Though it has taken me a long time to get here, I have grown to understand that people are holistic in nature, not just broken or healed, but journeying toward wholeness and purpose. Distractions from both within and without easily manipulate our journeys.

I was introduced to Greg Olney in a fortuitous way. Shortly after preaching a message at Crossroads Church—where he and I both attend but had never met—he reached out to me with an encouraging email. He was very impacted by my words (really God’s words given to me) and thought that since my words cut to the heart, I would be the perfect person to write this foreword. Since then, I have learned that Greg is a master at his craft, a consultant on change management, a businessman, an achiever, and someone who strives to make others better by helping them avoid the distractions that interrupt their purpose.

The message I preached that day asserts that great missions are lived out with the knowledge that they will require pain along the way. In other words, to get to purpose, you must push through discomfort and pain on your journey. All great Olympians know exactly what this means. Just look at the suffering and pain they endure for even a chance to compete! As a Christ follower, I look at Jesus and His suffering. Luke, one of Jesus’ disciples, writes, The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised on the third day (Luke 9:22, NASB). To get to His purpose—conquering death and being the final sacrifice for sin—Jesus had to suffer. Therefore, if Jesus experienced suffering to get to His purpose, we must also suffer. Luke continues: If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me (Luke 9:23, NASB).

Self-denial, obedience, and humility are all combined here. Suffering is a part of purpose. However, humans are pain-avoidant and comfort-seekers. As I mentioned, we wouldn’t want to choose pain, suffering, or denial of self, so distraction sets in, perhaps starting with the desire to avoid pain, but then it becomes part of who we are, almost as a chronic illness.

Greg digs down into the things that get in the way of us getting to our purpose and making it attainable. Using sound thinking as well as historical and biblical examples—look at the bibliography to see the research that has gone into this book!—Greg breaks down the word distract into bite-size pieces using the word as an acrostic. I wrongly assumed I could guess the words represented by the acrostic. Unlike my categorical assumptions, Greg’s thinking is creative and gut-punching. And that’s what is attractive about this book—in as much as we want to think we are in control of our life’s purpose, Greg calls out things that literally pull us from our journey.

He takes common catchphrases, debunks them, questions them, and then goes deeper. Things like devil’s advocate, safety in numbers, and love-hate relationship are not what they appear to be. He gets to the heart of our struggles…and our suffering. For example, where are you being seduced? Yes, seduction can be exciting, but then it slowly sucks the energy out of your journey toward purpose without you even realizing it; or where do you pin the blame on society or social media or someone else? Blame is a natural tendency, but pointing the finger at others only takes you further from where you should be. There is much more to each of these concepts, to say the least, and I was drawn into every chapter and ended with more curiosity than when I began. I left asking myself, Where am I being distracted, seduced, and tempted, which has interrupted me from fulfilling my purpose?

Going back to that sermon I preached, which you can find on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NopT1bZts6w&t=2432s), I shared about a person who distracted me from my mission and purpose and subsequently who became a stronghold for me. Greg alludes to this in his book. There are strongholds out there, people and things that distract. Yet, there are life-giving resources, helpful books, positive relationships, a convicting community, and modern psychology that all help us get back on purpose. I invite you to open your mind and heart as you read this book; be willing to be uncomfortable as you read, and then choose one thing, perhaps the distraction that stands out the most or the one thing you identify as a cause for suffering, and start making intentional steps to push through the pain to your purpose. You got this!

Lauren Janetzke

Pastor at Crossroads Church in Corona, California

Chapter 1

An Overview of Distraction

I am God’s first love. I don’t want to seem egotistical, but I am God’s first love. You are God’s first love too. When we’re told in the last book of the Bible how God holds it against the church in Ephesus that they left their first love, I have to remember that it’s God’s first love that I’ve really left if I’ve left anyone. When Jesus Christ speaks the words, I have this against you, that you have left your first love, I see your and ask, From where? The Greek word for your is sy, and it’s a personal pronoun of the second person singular. Then I remembered who the first person was saying it. He personally gave us His love. You and I are God’s first love. He gave each of us His first loves, each other. My favorite thing that my mother would call me is love. She would call me her love, and I knew she meant it.

.

When my mother was cutting my hair one day, she said very slowly, For…God…so…loved…the…world…that…He…gave…us…His…only…begotten…Son. It was as if she was hearing it for the first time. She was in her seventies, so this statement shouldn’t have been a surprise to her. She had loved all her life, but for the first time, she was realizing that she was loving God’s first love…me and you. John 3:16 (NASB) has become a platitude to people; they repeat the words, for God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, and are distracted from the words as soon as they escape their lips. My mother, that day, let the words linger on her lips. Each word was a choice morsel, especially the word love. I wondered why this took her a lifetime to fully understand. She was having a crisis in faith, and her world was being turned upside down.

Then, I had my own crisis in faith when my wife, Kristina, and I were reading the last chapter of C. S. Lewis’ book The Problem with Pain; C. S. Lewis made the case that we are God’s first love. When we love each other, we are loving God’s first love. I always connected wife of one’s youth with first love. Maybe this was rightly so. However, this is not just a literal comparison. When I love my wife, I’m loving her with the love God gave me. In Isaiah 54:6, God calls to each of us like we’re a wife of one’s youth when she is rejected. I began to cry because I was not able to love my wife with the capacity that God loves. I don’t measure up to His standards. He can only love through me, and then I can love my wife as God’s first love.

The world seeks to distract each of us from the truth of God’s love. My five change management books—The Transition Game, Commitment to Change, Why Change Fails, The Restoration Process, and (my newest) The Great Distraction—have been written so that readers understand