A discerning man keeps wisdom in view, but a fool’s eyes wander to the ends of the earth.  Proverbs 17:24

Rabbit trails are a dangerous thing.  In the context of the work place or specifically a meeting, they cause a decrease in productivity and distract from the task at hand.  If it weren’t for rabbit trails, I think a lot of meetings in many workplaces could be shortened significantly, or at least feel like they were worth your time.  When you look at rabbit trails in the context of internet usage, the dangers take on a whole new light.

It all starts as you’re doing research for a project or just using a site like stumbleupon.com (the third button down to your left) to find something random to pass the time.  Then you stumble across a funny video on YouTube, follow a link to some funny jokes which lead you to another page that full of more inappropriate jokes, and the rabbit trail continues from there.  The thing about following a rabbit trail is that it is almost inevitable that you will end up somewhere you don’t want to be, or that you will will regret later.  This can be especially dangerous for anyone who has struggled with poor self-esteem, coveting, or lust.  Once you’ve followed a rabbit trail deep enough into a hole, it can be easy to fall back into sinful trends that you may have thought you were done with.

30 Day Challenge

In my accountability group this week, we talked about the power of doing something for 30 days straight.  If you look at the movie Super Size Me, you can see how eating nothing but McDonalds for 30 days can have major negative effects on your health.  Think about how benieficial something like reading through a chapter in Proverbs or the book of James every day would be.  It’s not just about gaining something from The Word, but about creating a habit.  If you do anything for 30 days straight, chances are that it will become habit for you.

So here’s the challenge that I am taking over the next 30 days.  Anytime I get online, whether it be for work or just to pass time at home, I am going to start by reading My Utmost for His Highest for the day then a chapter of Scripture before anything else.  For one thing, it will change my mindset as I’m online, but more importantly it will create a habit of spending daily time in devotion.  A third benefit is that I will be spending less time online when I am done reading so I will be less likely to follow a rabbit trail too far.  I’m looking forward to seeing how I change over the next month as I tackle this challenge.  I just pray that God helps me stay true to the challenge and grants me wisdom through it.