Dr. Jack Van Impe, president of Jack Van Impe Ministries International, died on January 18. A popular revival speaker among independent Baptist churches like my childhood church, Dr. Van Impe was an end-times, accordion-playing preacher and televangelist. He had memorized an incredible number of Bible verses and never shied away from calling people to believe in Jesus.

I first heard about the news of his death on my former church's Facebook group. It buzzed with activity throughout the day as people posted tributes to Dr. Van Impe. I immediately thought of June bugs.

My parents modeled and taught respect for church leadership, especially our pastor, especially guest preachers. They didn’t complain about his suit, his haircut, his personality or mannerisms in the pulpit. Nor could we. We could, however, weigh in about the content of his Sunday sermons. Ours was a lively, opinionated dinner table.

Unfortunately, my parents didn’t have a contingency plan for June bugs.

Every June, the first real week of summer vacation, Jack Van Impe and his lovely wife, Rexella, held revival meetings at the church. At my church, revival meetings were meant to stir our hearts to go and win others to Jesus. Dressed in our Sunday clothes, we crowded into the non-air-conditioned auditorium and stirred the hot stuffy air with cardboard fans, courtesy of the local funeral home. We looked out the windows, wondering if the gathering thunderstorm clouds would knock out the electricity, wondering if Jack Van Impe would even notice if the lights went out. We chewed on lint-covered peppermint candies my dad doled out from his suit pocket. We refrained from kicking the seats in front of us and each other.

One revival meeting night, my sisters and I were suddenly focused on the man in the pulpit. A June bug was flying around Dr. Van Impe’s head. He brushed it away once, twice, three times. It returned. Van Impe kept preaching and waving. My parents gave up on keeping us still.

We began cheering for the June bug as it flew closer and closer to its mark. Would the June bug fly into his mouth? Would he swallow it? Choke on it? Stop preaching?

Then it happened. The June bug flew into his mouth.

My parents, my two sisters and I gasped.

Jack Van Impe spat that June bug out of his mouth, pointed a finger at the five of us and shouted, “Satan sent that June bug to distract you!”

All of us dissolved into laughter. So much for a revival that night.

These days, Satan probably sends a lot more—and a lot less—than June bugs to distract me. Ones that aren't flying into a preacher's mouth but lodging in my mind and heart. This morning, the lesser distractions include the The New York Times app, the pile of laundry, the overdue library book in the stack on the nightstand and our barking dog—all designed to distract me from 1 Peter and morning prayers.

Lesser distractions buzz around all day. Not really sins—yet. It doesn’t take much, however, for annoying distractions to morph into greater distractions: anxiousness or frustration or impatience with people who just don’t want to change or difficult situations that go on and on and on. How many things can I check off my list before lunch? Why can’t the person snap out of it and see things my way? Why doesn’t this issue go away so I can have my much-deserved peace and rest.

The accumulative effect of these distractions is my sure and steady gaze on the present, the here and now.

"Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?" (Matthew 6:26)

I barely look up from my downward gaze—so concerned about the June bugs in February sowing and reaping and gathering—at the birds of the air, let alone the heavenly Father who feeds them.

But one look at the clear blue sky of God's Word and I know. It's a grace, then, as I swat at my own version of June bugs to look further up and further in and to hear Jesus’ words, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33)