Soon after the 1844 disappointment, Ellen White had a vision in which she saw the “travels of the Advent people to the Holy City of God.” (EW p.14) She saw a straight and narrow path cast above the dark world. A light shone on the path to give light for their feet so that they might not stumble. “If they kept their eyes fixed on Jesus, who was just before them, leading them to the city, they were safe.” (EW p.14)
But many grew weary and became distracted. “The light behind them went out… and they stumbled and lost sight of the mark and of Jesus, and fell off the path down into the dark wicked world below.” (EW p.15) And just as they fell, the eyes of the faithful were drawn to the east where they saw a small black cloud half the size of a man’s fist. Everyone solemnly gazed at the cloud as it drew closer knowing that it was the sign of the coming of the Lord.
The first thing to notice is obvious: those who keep their eyes on Jesus are the ones who remain on the path, those who do not, fall off. The second thing to notice is that had those who lost focus just remained focused a little longer, they too would have seen the fist-cloud. Whatever the distraction was, it was strong enough to remove the Advent people’s gaze off of Christ right before the coming of the Lord.
Have you ever wondered how these companies make millions by giving their apps away for free? It is because we, in fact, are the product, not the consumer. Our attention is the product and companies that desire our money are their customers. By giving us the ability to download from the app “store” and rate their “product”, they create the mirage that we are the customers and completely in control, but we are not.
We often fear the corruption of the mind without realizing the much greater danger of simply being distracted. In C.S. Lewis’ timeless book The Screwtape Letters, the demon Screwtape warns his young apprentice Wormwood, “It is funny how mortals always picture us putting things into their minds: in reality, our best work is done by keeping things out. If this fails, you must fall back on a subtler misdirection…the simplest is to turn their gaze away from Him [God] toward themselves.” (Screwtape p.16)
According to Screwtape, the kingdom of darkness does its most damage not by putting things into our mind, but by keeping things out. There is enough darkness inside each one of us to consume us. All the powers of darkness need to do is keep the light out by keeping us distracted. Notice how this is also true in Ellen White’s vision. It is not moral corruption that causes people to fall just before the coming of Christ, but distraction. It is distraction that corrupts.
Let us lift our eyes to the light that shines our path. Let us look to Jesus and forsake all distractions. For in just a little while, we too will see the fist cloud. Maranatha.
—Alex Portillo