To get what you really need, instead of what you don’t need, search, don’t shop.

A friend recently told me about how whenever he goes on the internet to research something, he gets distracted and ends up clicking on any interesting-looking thing that catches his eye. This doesn’t happen by accident. Search engines of any kind design sidebars with tantalizing images and headlines to draw us away and make us follow them to their “home”.

No sooner do we do that, then another sidebar image with headline beckons, and off we go again. On and on until we forget why we entered cyberspace to begin with. We get way off track and by the time we return to our original intent, if we ever do, we’ve wasted a lot of time and energy.

After hearing him describe his own experience with this, I asked him how he buys groceries at the supermarket. He told me he makes a list, goes and gets those items, and comes home.

“Exactly”, I responded. Then I explained the difference between shopping (wandering around) and searching (going in with a specific purpose of finding a specific thing).

“Yes, I search”, he replied, “I get in and get out because I don’t want to waste any time in the store.” Although, he admitted, that’s hard sometimes because of the sales he sees as he’s going to get his listed items.

Again, no accident, I told him. Store owners always put the stuff they want to sell in the front of the store and/or place the “can’t-pass-it-up” sale signs in strategic places for shoppers to get drawn away by them.

How, then, do we resist the distractions that call out like sirens to make us wander off, and perhaps never reach our intended destination?

1. Before starting out, identify the reason for going there, whether it’s the internet, a store, a forest, on the road, etc. Without having a definite purpose, how can we know if we’re wasting our time, going after the wrong thing, deviating away from the right direction, or headed for the wrong destination?

The best way to know if money is counterfeit is to become so sure of what real money is, that we’ll recognize anything else as counterfeit. Or how many times have we entered a room or opened our refrigerator door only to forget what we came for? When that happens, we end up doing or grabbing the first thing we notice—which may not be what we need.

“Where there is no revelation (vision), people cast off restraint (perish); but blessed is the one who heeds wisdom’s instruction” Prov. 29:18

2. Look only to fulfill that reason, for what we absolutely need, and nothing else. Anything else is extra. Keep going “to the back of the store”, if necessary, until we find what we came for. This takes discipline, because it doesn’t come naturally. The media, marketers, mongers (voices with their own agendas), etc., all capitalize on our natural tendency to heed whatever or whoever is loudest, brightest, and most appealing.

How to combat getting drawn away— spend daily, frequent, ongoing, time with the Lord, to the point where we get to know Him well enough to know what He wants and doesn’t want, and recognize His “still, small, voice” within (1 Kings 19:12). Then, to delight in hearing Him and doing His will above our own or other people’s. Likewise, to no longer seek after or approve of what we did before, because our beloved Lord says, “this stuff stinks”. Couples in love do this all the time—adopt each other’s opinions, likes, and dislikes. How much more can we do this with our Heavenly Papa!

“Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart” Ps. 37:4. That is, His desires will become our desires.

“And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left”. Is. 30:21

3. When we find what we’re searching for, get “out”. Don’t linger where the temptation to wander beckons. Once we’ve fulfilled our purpose, there’s no need to stay where all the extra or even harmful stuff can waste our time, energy, and resources, or worse yet, bring us and others down.

“But flee youthful lusts, and follow after righteousness, faith, love, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart”. 2 Tim. 2:22

Here’s another way to think of this– If you’re looking for true gold, don’t follow whatever sparkles. They call that “fools’ gold” for a reason.

Search well and find what you’re really needing and looking for in life.