Ever heard of the above?  Chaff is a “cloud” of foil strips or metal coated fibers ejected from an aircraft to help mask it from enemy radar.  Flares are just that, flares, hot and fiery and also designed to be ejected from an aircraft to decoy any possible heat-seeking missiles away from it.

Like chaff & flares, there are many things in life that serve as distractions from what is most important.

God, through his prophet Isaiah, asked the ancient Judeans 2,700 years ago:

 “Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy?  Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourself in abundance”,
- Isaiah 55:2

 Great question!  Why be distracted into spending money, time, emotional energy or your whole life pursuing things that will make no lasting difference?

If there were a book of tricks, distraction would be the oldest one in it: 

“When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate”,
- Genesis 3:6

 Satan distracted Eve.  He got her to forget about what God said and look at the forbidden fruit.  He is still doing that same thing, except that he often does not distract us with forbidden fruit, just “less important” fruit.

Satan will get us to talk about everything under the sun with our friends and neighbors, as long as we don’t bring mention their lost souls.  He will tempt us to make every event a priority in our lives except, of course, for worship and Bible study.  Wholesome hobbies even serve as distractions from serving in the kingdom.

If we intend to be disciples, we must focus on the Lord Jesus Christ.  Keep an eye out for the clouds of chaff and those brightly burning flares.  When you see them, by-pass them and press on to the most important things in the universe.