I have the privilege of serving as a chaplain for the City of Winter Springs which in addition to praying for government meetings and counseling city employees means that I have the opportunity to observe city political life from an (oftentimes) safe vantage. One of the things that has struck me over the years is how quickly people who are citizens of the same city posture themselves as enemies. Don’t get me wrong—I understand that merely being neighbors or paying taxes to the same municipality does not amount to anyone in history’s definition of friendship. And at the same time, the speed at which people come to the conclusion that another human being is their enemy and then treat them as a bitter enemy without respect, honor, or hope of reconcilliation or compromise is startling. Even the ancients recognized that living in a perpetual state of animosity destroys all things from the inside out.

This is not to suggest that people in general don’t have enemies or should not oppose their enemies. The Bible copiously describes and condemns the enemies of God and His people, and we are rightfuly taught to pray imprecatory Psalms and as well as extemporaneous prayers against them (see Trevor Laurence’s excellent little book Arise, O Lord: A Christian Guide to Cursing with God). What seems to be the greater issue is what military doctrine refers to as postive identification (PID), that is, essentially establishing with reasonable certainty that a target is a valid, hostile military objective before engaging with it.

In other words, it is discerning your real enemy.

I owe a great debt to my friend Joe who has taught in Classical Christian schools for most of his adult life and now serves as a director of family ministry at a local, friendly PCA church for introducing me to the French Jansenist (staunchly Augustine Catholics that shared many views with Reformers like Calvin) Blaise Pascal’s Pensees over a decade ago. Pascal’s so-called “wager” was at one point in our history common knowledge, and while I was familiar with his general philosophy, I had never read his “fragments” before my friend’s encouragement. One that has stuck with me over the years comes early in Pensees:

33. Wretchedness. The only thing that consoles us for our miseries is distraction, yet that is the greatest of our wretchednesses. Because that is what mainly prevents us from thinking about ourselves and leads us imperceptibly to damnation. Without it we should be bored, and boredom would force us to search for a firmer way out, but distraction entertains us and leads us imperceptibly to death.

If the goal of an ultimate enemy is ultimately the death of its nemesis, then distraction is a terrifyingly effective weapon in the hands of an enemy according to Pascal. I am sure someone somewhere has already interacted with Pascal’s understanding of distraction and this Technological Age that we live in, one in which we are constantly “connected” with everyone and everything at all times and yet terribly alone. But without going “meta” with this wisdom, may I suggest that Pascal’s insight that “distraction entertains us and leads us imperceptibly to death” is of dire importance for our “greater city”, Orlando, and our way of life.

Why? We are a city that lives on distraction.

This is not simply a convenience or hapenstance, a coping mechanism of sorts, but distraction is our economy, and arguably we are the greatest city for distraction in the history of the world. Though it has yet to figure out a way to brand everything in the Greater Orlando area, this is for all intents and purposes the “City That the Mouse Built”. Even if you live in Orlando and have a job that isn’t directly tourism related, your way of life is subsidized by the commercially lucrative distracting of people from all over the globe. Taxes from the entertainment behemoths behind these international attractions fund our infrastructure. They employ almost 40% of our local population. And for many locals—even in the Church—”park culture” is a primary good. Drive through the parking lot of any orthodox Christian church on any given Sunday and count the annual passholder stickers.

Why bring all of this up?

For two reasons.

First, because distraction is killing you and the people around you. It is an existential threat. Especially in Orlando, but also in Ontario, Oslaka, or any other human city, we as human beings will never seek “a firmer way out” of our miseries unless we recognize distraction as a particularly heinous “WMD” in the hands of our Enemy and his family.

Second, because Bible-believing, Holy Spirit-indwelling, sacrament-practicing, fellowship-fostering, All-of-Christ-for-All-of-Life churches are the places where Christ is leading the resistance. When they gather for worship and life and Kingdom-building, when they gather to pray all the Psalter, the Triune God pours out His light on them, holy fire that runs through streets just like it did on Pentecost. And that, I think Pascal would agree, is the not-so-secret weapon that God so chooses to pluck brands out of that eternal fire, to save men, women, and children all around the world from “[imperceptible]… damnation” .