MERRY "OBLIGATED" CHRISTMAS

Freedom from Obligation is the Best Gift

“I've reached that peculiar but serene stage in life when all I want for Christmas is less"

Even the most fortunate of us feel a bit of extra pressure around the end of the year. In a 2006 survey by the American Psychological Association over half of respondents reported they often or sometimes experience stress, irritability, and/or fatigue during the holidays, with the leading stressors being lthe feeling of obligation, lack of time, lack of money,  and commercialism or hype (in contrast to work and money which lead at other times of year). 

It’s not just Christmas. 

What the whole season has become is enough to make anyone rebel against all that pressure. 

I want to invent holidays out of that stress like: "Buy Nothing Day" and create a "Christmas Pre-NUPP!" (*No Unnecessary Presents Pact). It is a "You don't buy me anything and I don't buy you anything agreement." 

GIVE LOVE and AFFECTION. 

From the moment we lock the front door on Halloween night and start poking through the leftover trick-or-treat candy, we jump into a wild, obligation-filled bobsled run whisking us through Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve until we’re dumped headfirst into the cold, slushy snow of the first bleak (often broke ) week of January.

We feel the whirlwind beginning as ads start to suggest “the perfect gift for the so and so on your list.” The list is assumed. Of course everyone has a List. Everyone must be buying. Then that post-turkey Friday comes and the frenzy in the stores begins. The crowds. The sensory overload of *enforced commercial festivity. 

“Bring on the cheer, dagnabbit!” seems to be the underlying message of the barrage of Christmas music, holiday movie promotions, and red and green advertising plastered on every surface. Sometimes it seems like you couldn't throw a rock without hitting a Santa – and as December barrels on, the temptation to do so grows.

Oh, and let's not forget the family pressures.

Whether or not anyone in our own families applies it, pop culture is more than ready to step in with the traditional "holiday guilt." 

“Welcome to December; here's your script; you know your part; it's Magic Time! And as ad sponsors would like to remind you, magic means presents! 

So shop 'til you drop! Charge it! Don't forget your 19 nieces and nephews! After all, doesn't your family deserve a joyous holiday season?”

Friends and families gather, events are planned with all their special rituals running the gamut from four varieties of pies for differing tastes, right on up to Gift Exchange Nigjt, Midnight Mass and Auld Lang Syne in Times Square. People are pulled from their normal surroundings – or worse yet have to tidy them up for an onslaught of visitors – and are forced to do particular things at particular times, producing a source of stress.

There is no time of year more likely to run people ragged than the holidays. 

It's not as though family tensions disappear; if anything, all the pressure to set the perfect holly jolly scene makes things worse!! And I don't know about your financial state of affairs, but I don't come to the end of the year thinking “Wow! Look at all this extra money! I think I'll buy a bunch of stuff for everyone.”

Like me, you've probably felt pressured to overspend at this time of year and had a lean winter trying to get back on track. Or simply ended up with more regrettable debt. 

Well, I'm here to set you free! I want to tell you that holiday gift buying is optional. It is possible to have a happy family gathering without breaking the bank. You can have a blessed season without shattering your peace of mind. You can make it the season of giving without it being the season of shopping.

You don't have to buy presents. 

Really. 

You just don't have to. 

Most people don't need more stuff and no one needs more debt. 

Indeed, in that same 2006 APA survey 57% of respondents cited the pressure of giving and getting gifts as something that causes them stress. 

{*getting gifts that you have to pretend you love, or getting a gift from someone you didn't get a gift for...causes stress} 

Why put ourselves through this? 

Most of us in the first world have so much stuff that a pile of (typically unthoughtful and cheap) presents is no longer exciting, no longer novel. There are lots of alternatives to the holiday shopping madness, many other ways to remind people you care about them. (Maybe something for the kids, but, again, you don't have to break the bank to spread that holiday cheer) 

First and foremost, tell them you care! Write them a note, call them on the phone, whatever, but just say “You know, I am so glad to have you in my life.” Maybe suggest you get together at a specific time, perhaps after the holidays when things aren't so busy, but even if you only let them know that you appreciate them, you can be giving something much greater than a hastily selected present.

Some of my favorites that I have had tremendous fun making up are little books of Homemade gift certificates for future fun together. 

Each one becomes a shared dream of a good time I want us to have together. The words, “A walk in the woods with the smell of damp earth and redwoods and the sound of the wind in the treetops” are already something special, made even better when you both make the time to make the dream real!!! 

NOT SOLD IN STORES! 

Mix CDs (of music or photos)

I've been introduced to lots of great music this way, by both family and friends. My friend, Camille, introduced me to a genre I never listened to before. Okay, maybe I wind up spending some of that money I save on gifts, buying the albums with a song I particularly liked, but now every time I hear that music I think of the person who first shared their fondness for it with me.

NOT SOLD IN STORES! 

Wrap up some Memories! 

One year my family ‘unwrapped’ memories for each other. Everyone took time at writing and wrapping a favorite memory of each other person. Those stories reminded us of what we treasure about each other and it was a lovely way to spend time together. 

Again, NOT SOLD IN STORES! 

Heck, since these are FREE you could do all 3 and top any gift you could buy! 

I’m one of the fortunate ones. My family is not by any stretch of the imagination a high pressure one. Phrases such as “Well, I need a little me-time, so I’m going away this Christmas” or “I think I’ll stop by for a few hours." are often heard and accepted without causing tension. As family holidays go, mine are awfully relaxing. Don't get me wrong! WE LOVE CHRISTMAS! With all it's pleasures and goodness, we just don't like being left broke and exhausted. That is not the Spirit of Christ. 

Think about this: 

Add up all the stuff: all the decorations, stockings, tree stands, nativities, strings of lights, special plates for special meals, and we haven’t even come to the presents themselves yet. At some point my family began to see the forest instead of the Christmas tree and realized that despite all our rituals around the presents, our pleasure had almost nothing to do with the money that was spent, or even with the number of gifts them. 

We began to lower the pressure on ourselves and shift our focus to the less stress-inducing parts of the holiday. 

We started by saying that everyone should receive one big present, but that we shouldn’t all be buying extras. 

We decided to draw names so that we each knew for whom we would thoughtfully shop for. 

As the number of presents declined, so did our stress levels in December. That turned out to be the nicest gift we could give each other. We began to have more energy and joy and time for just being together on the holiday, cooking, talking, singing, reading aloud, and taking walks. 

Before many more years passed, the habit of opening a present on Christmas Eve faded and was replaced with what we call "REINDEER GAMES" and experiential gifts to be shared – like a new board game or a bunch of fancy cheeses to try (wine & cheese soirée). Now the presents are entirely optional.

Our holiday memories are now more, not less, rich for having fewer things involved in the season. Our homes are less cluttered, causing the chosen items we do keep to stand out and enrich our lives more easily. We remember and celebrate family and friends through digital pictures and funny stories, rather than objects, and our days are happier for it!!

Each year now as I enter my holiday vacation time, it’s clear that the biggest gift my family has given each other is freedom from obligation!! The real gift and the real focus is being together. We have traded presents for presence.

Crave more Presence. 

Gods presence first and then theirs. 

Then you will truly have a 

VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS! 

Todays cup of theoffee is a Grande Eggnog Latte, made from scratch!! 

Robbs 

WHY ME?

                                     

Now the people became like those who complain of adversity in the hearing of the LORD; and when the LORD heard it, His anger was kindled, and the fire of the LORD burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp(Numbers 11:1, NASB).

God hears and hates our complaining. 

He hears our complaints about the weather, traffic, taxes, social decline, the price of gas, our age, our weight & looks, and whatever else we grumble and murmur about. God knows every negative thought and word. But there is one particular brand of complaining that grates most on His ears (I really want to say "nerves"). In the terrible tale of  Numbers 11, the complaining of the children of Israel infuriated God, for “the people became like those who complain of adversity in the hearing of the LORD.” 

Did you catch that??? 

The worst kind of complaining is complaining about adversity, struggle, suffering. It sounds like this:                           

 “Why me? Why must I endure this trouble when life goes smoothly for everyone else? Why am I sick? I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. Why did I have to get a derelict for a husband? When will all this end?”

Echoing through those complaints is a common chord: my trial, my hardship, my lot in life, my misfortune, my struggle. This nauseating, maddening noise rises to the very ears of God until He basically responds, “Please get away from Me with that chronic complaining?”

How quickly we forget that we should expect uncomfortable, unfortunate circumstances in this life—it’s as certain as death and taxes. Jesus reminded us, “In this world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33, ESV), and the writer of Hebrews warned, “Do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves” (Hebrews 12:5–6). 

                                       

So why do we act surprised and indignant when tough-challenging-unpleasant times come?

God has entrusted to every person a measure of struggle & adversity—just the right amount to accomplish God’s eternal purposes in our lives. Your measure of struggle is like no one else’s, just like God’s eternal purpose for your life is like no one else’s.

For some, the adversity is a health crisis. For others, it’s a struggling career with continuous job changes. Others shoulder an unbearable weight of grief and responsibility following a long-ago family tragedy. Still others made a poor decision early in life, like rushing into marriage, and now they struggle with hard relationship consequences. Some desperately long to be parents, yet God has not allowed them to have children. Still others long to be married, while God has not provided the right mate. The shades and variations of examples are endless.

Whatever your adversity, it’s your cross to carry—and by His grace, God will help you shoulder that load. Every one of us has a unique measure of adversity, and God Himself measured it out. For that reason, every person has something in his or her life that God doesn’t want to hear complaints about.

                                             

Instead of rejoicing in all the good things God has done in our lives, we complain about That One Thing, whatever it is. But it’s so hard! we might argue. True, it is hard to live with adversity, and it’s hard not to complain about it. But when we complain about our trials, we forfeit the grace that could be ours to bear up under them. 

All the grace and strength you need in order to experience joy and overcome pain are available to you—but by choosing to complain, by clinging to the idol of a perfect, comfortable life, you flush away the grace of God. As Jonah wrote, “Those who worship false gods turn their backs on all God’s mercies” (2:8, NLT), or in the wording of the NKJV, “Forsake their own Mercy.”

Is idealism the false god in your life? What about comfort? Do you feel entitled to a perfect, adversity-free existence? Remind yourself that the very adversity you so often complain about is That One Thing God wants to use to keep your heart close to His. In His grace, He allows struggle and suffering to draw us closer to Him.

Is it hard? Yes! 

This is not to belittle or make light of very real, very hard adversity. However, worse than adversity is a complaining response to it. God simply will not tolerate repeated complaints about the measured adversity in our lives.

Sooooooo......do this.......

CLOSE YOUR EYES.

CLEAR YOUR HEART.

LET IT GO.

Pray

Lord God, to each of us You have given a measure of adversity. I don’t like mine. Thanks for letting me be honest with You. But rather than complain about this misery, by Your grace help me to accept it. I trust You to use this struggle for my good. Through it, please draw me closer to You. I ask you to give me the strength to endure well. Please refine my character so I’m more like Your Son. Convict me when I start to complain, Holy Spirit; I don’t want to forfeit the grace and mercy that could be mine. My example is Jesus, who asked You to remove the cup of adversity from Him but then prayed,“not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke22:42). In His matchless name I pray, amen.

This is a 5 shot Americana light ice.....a pretty strong cup....but you can HANDLE IT.

Robbs

DO YOU MAJOR IN THE MINORS?

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant (1 Corinthians 13:4, ESV).

The bulk of 1 Corinthians 13, the renowned love chapter, can be summarized in three statements: 

On the majors—action. 

On the minors—acceptance. 

In all things—love.

Let’s start with the majors. 

There come times in close relationships when the issues are serious. Failure to take action will produce MAJOR PROBLEMS. 

In those instances, love does not sit passively by, weakly reasoning, 

“I love him, so I won’t upset him.” 

Wrong! 

Love takes action on things that are truly major.

How do you distinguish what’s major? Use these three "C's" as guidelines to determine major issues on which love takes action.

1. Critical path: If your inaction will produce major problems  in another’s life, biblical love is on the move. 

If the person you love is struggling with a major doctrinal error, a case of marital unfaithfulness, a criminal act, a sin that could destroy him or someone else, or an abusive behavior, don’t sit passively by and collect stories for ten years. 

Step up! 

Get involved! 

Say something! 

Love takes action on the majors! 

2. Chronic problem: If you see the same sin patterns repeating over and over again, the issue doesn’t have to be big to get your love into gear. It’s “the little foxes that spoil the vineyards” (Song of Solomon 2:15). “Smaller” things call for action, too, if they’re part of a chronic pattern. If you have observed a destructive behavior repeated many times, it *invites* a loving response. A gentle word of correction can bear much fruit!

 Love might ask, “Is it possible you’re struggling with trusting God and sexual purity?” 

If you’re close enough to observe “little” behaviors that add up to a “major” in the form of chronic patterns, get involved. 

On the majors, love takes action!

3. Close proximity: How close are you to the situation? 

There are some things you can live with in your neighbors and your friends but not in your spouse or your kids, your brothers and sisters, etc. Your closeness to the situation may imply responsibility. 

For example, if you saw a friend making a purchase that seemed stupid (ok, unwise) and wondered if she could afford it, you likely wouldn’t say something. But if your sister  were making that purchase, it would be very appropriate to speak up. 

“You can’t afford that! Trouble ahead!" 

On the majors—action. 

If someone you love is on a critical path or fighting a chronic problem and you are in close proximity to the person, speak up. There are "precious few" people in this world who really love others enough to take *compassionate* action.

But much of what we see in each other doesn’t qualify as major, which brings us to our next principle: 

On the minors—acceptance. 

Minors refers to matters of personal preference, personality quirks, cultural differences, or even sin issues that aren’t critical or chronic. Really, 97 percent of life’s issues are minor: little irritations and differences between us. She thinks like this, but I don’t see it that way. I would have handled that scenario differently. I prefer contemporary worship music, but he likes traditional hymns.

These aren’t issues of right and wrong. We are different people, and we handle things differently. Most of the irritants in marriage and in friendship and in the workplace are minor. 

In those contexts, love learns to accept the person with his failures. Love doesn’t deny the irritation; love simply recognizes that the other person is far more important than any personal desire to live an irritant-free life. 

On the majors—ACTION! 

But on the minors—most things—ACCEPTANCE.

IN ALL THINGS—LOVE!!

Christ-"followers" are to be the most loving, accepting, uncritical people on the face of the earth.

 The weird, sick, marginalized, and unlovely felt accepted by Jesus, and they should feel comfortable around us too. 

Let the wind of this beautiful breeze blow across your mind: 

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant” (1 Corinthians 13:4). 

Love is patient with people’s differences. 

Love waits for people to change. Love is long-tempered. 

Love doesn’t arrogantly assume its perspective is right. 

Love is simply, refreshingly kind.

Give this kind of love, and it will be given back to you. 

Major on the MAJORS, but don't major on the minors! 

I need authentic Christians in my life, who will do this. 

Lord, thank You for this meaty passage of Your Word. It’s as relevant today as the day it was written. And it speaks to my experience. It calls me to less criticism 
and more love—sometimes speaking truth, more often accepting and embracing people who, like me, are in the process of transformation. 

God, forgive my negative, critical, faultfinding ways. Teach me to love others, to bear with them, to speak truth when it’s needed, and to accept them. Please bring to my mind a specific person with whom I need to be more loving and accepting. I want Christ to love others through me. Only He can give me a supernatural, endless capacity to love the very people who exhaust me. It’s in His matchless name I pray, amen.

Medium drip coffee with some of those foo-foo creamers from 7-11.  You know, the grab & go variety...no barista needed. A do-it-yourself cuppa joe. 

Robbs 

RE-TURNING

“Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth” (Hosea 6:1–3, ESV). At the bottom of every page of Scripture, God could have noted, “RSVP—please respond.” From the moment our earliest ancestors hid from God in the Garden of Eden, to the amazing vision of the new heavens and the new earth at the end of Revelation, if we are watching and listening, we will hear God beckoning. Time after time He invites us to come to Him, regardless of how far we’ve wandered or how long we’ve been gone. No matter what the distance is between you and the Lord right now, verses like Hosea 6:1 issue His surprising summons—especially to the torn and struck down—to return. If we don’t respond to the first invitation, God admits that He might hurt us for our good. When the open door, the light left on, and all of His gracious approaches aren’t enough, those who haven’t responded have an opportunity to hear His invitation through the pain of their continued wandering.  When this is the case, it’s time to RSVP immediately. “Come, let us return to the LORD,” is the response God wants to hear and the first step to spiritual revival. Notice the invitation, “Come.” You have a choice to leave the unfulfilling path you’ve chosen. It’s a tender-hearted pleading. Doubt can give way to faith, discouragement to joy, despair to purpose and deep satisfaction, and defeat to victory. But you have to come. And you are not alone—notice Hosea invites “us.”  You may feel alone, but you're not. Others are hearing the invitation, and when you respond, you will discover that they are responding, too. “Let us return to the LORD” is a heart cry that admits your mistake. You turned away, and right now is the time to turn back. As long as you are reading these words, it’s not too late. Do you sense the Holy Spirit drawing you?  Are you ready to make this choice? Now is not too late, but tomorrow isn’t promised.  You gain nothing if you don’t begin by responding to Him. Responding includes recognizing that some things have to change. Think about your life, and ask God to shine the light of His Word on your attitudes and activities. He will show you what is wrong. And He will help you in repentance—in turning away from sin and toward Him. When you see by the light of His Word how you got where you are and the damage sin has caused, God will help you turn away and develop a new thought pattern. I’m wrong, God. I’m sorry for what I’ve done. I have no excuse for acting and choosing as I have. I’m unworthy, but I’m turning toward you. Turning to the Lord is often actually re-turning. If you want to experience a fresh downpour of God’s mercy, you have to come back to the place where the water flowed previously.  This is not just an emotional response and a change of mind; it’s also an exertion of your will to get moving again in the right direction.  Invite the Lord to listen in on your thoughts as you identify specific sins you’re killing. Plan to run away from opportunities to sin. Replace habits that involve putting yourself in tempting situations with soul saving alternatives.  These positive steps will put distance between you and past sin and move you in a new direction.  You’ll be returning to the Lord. And every time you make a choice that honors Him, you're deepening your commitment to “live before Him.” I hope this cuppa joe (theology you can eat and drink) restores your mojo and puts you back in the race.  Robbs

GET HAPPY!

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content (Philippians 4:11, ESV).

In Philippians 4:11 Paul wrote, “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.” 

Do you want to be happy and satisfied in life? Ha! What? You are? Hogwash! Wishing, longing, craving, and eager impulses to possess stuff (material goods) runs rampant in our culture. This is the opposite of happiness and satisfaction. It's called covetousness.  Contentment is rare.  Contentment is happiness with your current situation. 

Paul knew how to be content in highs and in lows, in abundance and in need, in plenty and in hunger. Contentment is something Paul learned—and it’s something you and I can learn too. 

I practice it. In fact, God wants us to improve at this over the course of our lives, day by day.

Do you see the happiness contentment can bring to your life?

I do. Contentment brings blessings, such as joy in the present and satisfaction in the simple things of life. Contentment brings a settled sense of sufficiency and a peaceful pace that proves “more” should not be the focus of your thinking. You have life—what a privilege to be alive today! Contentment brings joy in the present!

Contentment also builds your capacity to appreciate ordinary pleasures. 

If you’re content, simple things make you happy. Like a nice walk. Go for a walk today with a member of your family, and hold his or her hand. Talk about what’s important. Read a book in the grass on a blanket. Enjoy a simple pleasure—have a loving conversation, eat a good meal without looking at your cellphone, savor a nice piece of music. If you can sit quietly, enjoy something simple, and not think ahead to what you will do next, that’s contentment. Cultivate your capacity to delight in ordinary pleasures.

Contentment is rooted in eternity. 

Contentment also promotes true joy in eternal things. Luke 15:10 describes how the angels throw a party when one sinner is saved. How phenomenal is that? As your contentment grows, so does your joy in the eternal. For example, if you anticipate picking up your Bible and can’t wait to hear God speak, that’s a blessing of contentment.

If all the grains of sand on all the beaches in all the world represent eternity, then one grain of sand represents life on this earth. We’re over here grinding this one grain of sand, our time on earth, to get everything out of it—and failing miserably! Too often we ignore all that God has in store for us. To increase your contentment, focus on eternity.

Contentment is a choice. 

When you choose it repeatedly, you create a lifestyle. Don’t expect to replace your impulses to possess stuff with contentment over your current situation in life lickety-split. You won’t wake up one morning and say, “Wow, I think I got contentment last night. It just happened. That's so cool!.” No, it begins with a choice. Then another choice. And another. It happens moment by moment, as you put off wishing, longing and craving this worlds material goods and put on "happy me, happy now, with what I have." 

When a desire for something comes into your mind, you can consider it and conclude, “Not necessary. I have enough.” That’s contentment. 

Lord, I do have enough. I have You. I have Your promises. I have Your faithfulness. I have Your strength and wisdom to face whatever happens in my life. I know I can trust You with my burdens. Forgive me for associating my happiness with anything external and temporary. Please help me to grow in the grace of contentment, so that I too can learn to be content in any situation. All this I pray in the name of Jesus, who is my ultimate example of true contentment. Amen.

A Grande Pumpkin Spice Latte in a ceramic cup, on the house!!

Robbs

DISTRACTED TO DEATH

Never Offline.

These words on a recent Time Magazine cover should unnerve us with the ominous future of a techno-invasion. 

Computers are getting strapped around us and stuck on us, moving into our watches and our glasses, “attempting to colonize our bodies.”

Journalists Lev Grossman and Matt Vella explain in the article. “We’re used to technology being safely Other, but the Apple Watch wants to snuggle up and become part of your Self. 

The reality of living with an iPhone, or any smart, connected device, is that it makes reality feel just that little bit less real. One gets over-connected, to the point where the *thoughts and opinions of distant anonymous strangers* start to feel more urgent than those of your loved ones who are in the same room as you. One forgets how to be alone and undistracted.”

To never be alone and undistracted is especially alarming in light of the parable of the four soils where Jesus warns us of the spiritual hazards of distractions. 

Whether our concerns are in the next room or in the Syrian desert, life can get quickly crowded by any number of cares, anxieties and desires. The ephemeral chokes out the infinite (Mark 4:18–19).

But your wrist doesn’t need to be cuffed to an Apple Watch to feel distractions colonizing your life. The average iPhone pings and push notifies our attention with the cares of the world in real time. The latest news and chatter can rob our focus, knock our lives off center, and drown out the voice of God.

I'm sick of this. Literally and figuratively. 

I fight to find my own thoughts. 

“We have reached a period in which all forms of cultural life have surrendered to the sovereignty of Technology,” warns Arthur Hunt. “We are now under a Technopoly, which says absolutely nothing is going to stand in our way of technological progress. We put so much cultural stock in sort of headlong rush into the future without any clear telos [goal]. 

The only real telos is it has got to be bigger, it has got to be faster, and it has got to be newer. Somebody might ask: Well, what is wrong with this?

Well, it advances the notion that our purpose in life is to be a satisfied consumer of material goods. So the next big thing is not the coming of God’s kingdom, but the coming of the curved TV screen.”

In fact Christians do have a clear telos, says David Wells. “Our objective in life is to become God-centered in our thoughts, God-fearing in our hearts and God-honoring in all that we do. 

This is a society of distraction. If we allow it to overwhelm us and press us into its mold, will take time away from those things that are central and necessary: our focus upon the reality and the presence and the glory and the goodness and the greatness of God. So in that sense it becomes a real competitor.”

“We get cellphone pings and beeps. We all understand this,” Wells said. “But the large question is this: What is this doing to our minds when we are live with this constant distraction? 

What happens to us when we are in constant motion? 

When, in fact, we are addicted to constant visual stimulation, what happens to us? 

That is the big question. 

The average person shifts tasks every three minutes. {YOWZA!} 

And half the time we interrupt ourselves! 

Hence, you are probably exasperated with reading this post and have, or are now about to, scroll down to see how much longer you have to read!! (Stay the course, it may save you from destruction. That means, its so weighty it's worth it!) 

So what is this doing to us deep down? 

The smaller question is: How do we find time for the things that are really central and critical in our lives as Christians?”

These are two problems we must address.

Part of the problem is that we get drawn into the lie that our lives are rendered irrelevant if we fail to connect in social media every day, multiple times a day, every waking hour. 

“People on Facebook update their status on an hourly basis, because if they don’t, they have become obsolete,” says Wells. “But the most relevant thing in the world is what is eternal. And in that sense, the eternal is the most relevant, the most up-to-date thing that anyone could find.”

The Internet is constantly working to make us highly impatient people, Wells warns. (This should seriously, concern you!) 

“We want to go on to the next thing now, immediately. It cannot be too soon before we move on. But the knowledge of God, learning to walk with him through all of the conflicts, anxieties, difficulties, injustices of life — that is a life process. It takes time for this knowledge to mature in people. And we condemn ourselves if we allow ourselves to be shaped by this culture of distraction.”

Whether we are interrupted by external beeps for notification, or interrupted by internal cravings for distraction, our minds are changing. 

And this gets to the most serious concerns Wells has for Christians. “We are losing the capacity for attention, by which I mean the ability to focus on something and to think about it. And if we lose our capacity to focus, how will God be the central organizing person in our lives? 

How will we become God centered in our thoughts, if we are fragmented in our thoughts? 

And how are we going to be God-honoring in our lives, if our lives are just bits and pieces of information? That is the problem.”

Now What?

These are serious problems, and not unique to Christians. But where do we go from here? How does Scripture help us navigate these concerns? How do we protect our time and attention to focus on what is eternally relevant? Hunt and Wells offer five takeaways to help us survive life in Technopolis.

1. Count the personal costs of a device along with the benefits(Hunt). “First I think the Bible informs us to walk circumspectly with eyes wide open. To some extent I think we should be like the children of Issachar, men who understood their times (1 Chronicles 12:32). 

We live in a world that is constantly changing and telling us that we need this new gadget and what this new gadget will do for us. We should be asking: What is this new gadget going to do to me personally? And what is it going to do to my family, to my community, to the world?” Every gadget comes with benefits. Every gadget comes with *relational costs.

2. Be the master over your technology, don’t get mastered by it(Hunt). Don’t be a passive recipient for technology, but use technology to achieve the ends of your life. “We need to be masters of our technologies and not the other way around. The consumer should not be consumed.”

3. Moderate your use (Hunt). We are not monks. Separating ourselves from technology completely is not an option for us. Thus, “we should practice the virtue of moderation, or what the Bible calls self-control. We should learn to redeem the time because the days are evil (Ephesians 5:16). Time is short, because we are going to die. Therefore, we need to make the best use of our time.” And our attention is finite and limited. Create patterns in your life to strategically withdraw from technology.

I call mine a TECH SABBATH!! 

4. Hone your skill to distinguish the significant from the insignificant(Wells). “We must learn to organize our internal world. If we don’t do that, we cannot see the distinction between things that are really weighty in life from those that are ephemeral and flashy and superficial; those that are true from those that are wrong; those that really matter from those that we can brush off. 

The capacity to do that is what the Bible talks about under the language of wisdom. We today might think of wisdom today as *smarts. But in the Bible it is really not. It is a heart thing, the ability to see life for what it is by our knowledge of God. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, because we are seeing our lives with the rays of eternity (Psalm 111:10; Proverbs 1:7; 9:10). When you see life in that sort of light, it looks very different from the way that life looks like on the Internet.”

5. Discipline yourself by reading books (Wells). “We need to keep exercising our minds by reading, because it exercises our minds to understand sentences and follow narratives. We need these abilities to study Scripture.”

For the health of our soul, we must learn to get alone undistracted.

Only in thoughtful silence can we order (or re-order) our lives by the greatest and most relevant news in the universe. 

“The greatest, deepest, most glorious thing that we can know is what God has revealed to us of himself in his love and his holiness,” Wells reminds us. 

“Everything else pales into insignificance. If you focus on the shiny stuff that flashes and pings for a moment, at the end of your life you will find that your hands and your soul are empty.”

Deep breath. 

Now, plan immediately, to regularly power your devices down, grab your bible, read something, anything, perhaps a psalm and a proverb or two. A spiritual book from one of the dead guys, like Andrew Murray. Get out of here, go somewhere and sit silently without interruption. 

Because distraction will....kill the real you. 

The spiritual you.