MARK 9:8

Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus. Mark 9:8

TO PONDER:

Have you heard of the Gruen Effect. It's named after Victor Gruen, the father of the shopping mall. He designed shopping centres to have blank facades, with no signage on them, so that consumers would then enter and be dazzled by the interiors. The more beautiful the displays and surroundings, the longer consumers are will want to stay in a shop. The more time shoppers spend in a store, the more they will spend. Part of the genius in his design is what we see in shopping centres still today. It's hard to find your way out. you have to walk past shop after shop with their great displays to get to the escalators. That is deliberate. We get so overwhelmed or distracted, or disoriented that we forget what our intentions were, and buy something we didn't;t know we need.

The disciples were distracted by their circumstances too. Peter James and John had front row seats to the glory of God. Before their very eyes they see the Kingdom of God. They see the power of the Kingdom. They see the glory of the Kingdom. It was a moment of transfigured clarity where they see the humanity of Jesus suffused with the eternal glory of God. For the Kingdom of God, the power of the Kingdom, the glory of the kingdom is fully in Jesus. The Kingdom of God is wherever Jesus is present. Nothing else matters...only Jesus alone...listen to him, the Father says...everything else is a distraction. As people of the resurrection, the glory of God is not a moment to be captured, but a reality to be lived as we follow Jesus daily in lives of intentional, vibrant discipleship. May you embody the glory of God today, revealing his presence wherever you go.

PRAYER

Lord Jesus, help me not get distracted by the world and the circumstances around me, but to focus only on Jesus, who transforms my life and circumstances with his presence. Amen.