How can God use distractions?

Exodus 3:1-4One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. . . . The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn’t burn up. “This is amazing,” Moses said to himself. “Why isn’t that bush burning up? I must go see it.” When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him.

Moses was just living an ordinary day doing his ordinary job! God used the burning bush, a definite distraction, to get Moses’ attention because God had a much bigger job he wanted Moses to begin.

Acts 9:3-5As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?” “Who are you, lord?” Saul asked. And the voice replied, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting!

God sometimes uses distractions to get us to stop thinking about what we think is right and start thinking about what he says is right. Saul (whose name was later changed to Paul) sincerely believed that persecuting Christians was the right thing to do—he thought God was pleased with his actions. God had to get his attention with a dramatic distraction that changed the course of his life (and the lives of many others!). The more stubborn and passionate we are about our opinions, the more dramatic God may have to be to get our attention.