We live in an era of unprecedented distractions at every turn and glance. We are a generation that is addicted to our phones. Social networking sites like Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat – each vying for our most precious attention, advertisements in most every web-page barraging our eyeballs, endless video, TV, and movie streaming services like Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, and HBO, rule our precious time. Wading through these frequently shallow tides of constant entertainment can be, albeit fun and a time-filler, but ultimately is just temporary activity that can often be associated with filling in the lulls of our day with “the endless scroll” and never-ending media content. But what is giving you life?
My daily Screen Time average is 3 hours and 17 minutes a day, according to my iPhone. While I have been conditioning myself down and intentionally throttling my usage of SNS (social networking system), this is still almost 22% of my day if I estimate that I spend roughly 15 hours awake.
So what happens when we remove or step away from the distractions of technology? Why do we turn to it in the first place? What are we left with? We are left with our own thoughts to contend with. And, perhaps, we become uncomfortable in our own company. Why am I feeling anxious or depressed? Or, rather, what is this nebulous feeling of guilt lingering over my head? It can be a rather frightening, but eye-opening focus of the conscious mind. We are left with our own selves to contend with, and the freedom, or perhaps lack thereof, that exists inside our own minds. We are left with contemplating the existential and metaphysical, as opposed to the immediacy demanded by whatever device, screen, person, activity, object, or situation that may be preoccupying our attention. We are left with the reality that exists inside our minds in lieu of our quotidian, largely virtual, worlds.
My perspective on this is as follows: we are in a constant battle between those pressing tasks we need to complete that we all know so well – I have to get this bill taken care of right now, reply to this email ASAP as possible, text this friend, make these plans, etcetera.
Now, I am not saying these things are inherently good or bad, but that the ways in which we spend our time are vastly important.
The realm in which we leave ourselves at the expense of modern-day, first world, commonplace life is where I would like to explore with you today. This is a realm in which spirituality, a deep, intimate connection with the human condition and how we relate to the broken world we live in and what modern-day divination looks like.
Recently, I have been rather obsessed with exploring this and trying to gain insight into what faith, truth, a personal relationship with God, and core belief system looks like. In daily life, this looks like: forgoing immediate indulgence (not all the time, I will often quickly make a pint of ice cream disappear into the dark depths of my stomach), dedicating time for meditation, contemplation, and prayer, synthesizing information, reading Scripture, making connections with people, and listening for the Spirit’s guidance (more on this later, if you are confused). This is a space that looks inward as opposed to the outward. My sister once said “life flows from the inside out.”
This dude hasn’t even brought up quarantine yet, what a nance…
As our normally outward focused lives have shifted towards at-home environments, I would be remiss to omit that perhaps God has provided this pandemic not as an excuse to lazily wallow in self-pity and despair in bottomless pits of *insert whatever your personal guilty pleasure is*, but as an opportunity for growth, reflection, time to go on walks, to enjoy the little things, to enjoy the company of those around us. A time to find joy in the little things, to get back to what is important and beautifully simple. A time to rest in His loving presence.
This invisible, inward realm exists at the very center of our beings, the core of our bodies, our hearts.
I have really been struggling with how to foster a healthy relationship with social media as of late. In the spirit of transparency, I would like to share my current SNS boundaries:
My hope is this opens up the dialog and perhaps causes you, my dear reader, to be more intentional about your phone usage. It is not a one-size-fits-all boot. What works for me may not work for you.
Furthermore, the message I am attempting to convey is one that challenges and pushes the envelope of traditional American postmodern schools of thought, or even a post-post modernistic (oof!) viewpoint. But I digress.
*cue hypocritical reaction of realizing that my post-postmodern reference is actually quite in tune with the budding definitions of this age*
I am writing because of my own convictions and attempting to open my eyes to the narrow frame of mind I catch myself in every day and probe into the place only homo sapiens can go.
In order to dissect this existential place, we must mention the Bible at this point as a source of answers to the whole why are we here, what am I even doing bit (anyone else? just me? cool). As the overwhelmingly most-popular book in the world, why are we not collectively spending more of our time discussing its cultural and historical significance?
I am writing because I am sick of silence. I am writing because I feel that the risk of not writing is now greater to me than the risk I face from writing about my convictions. I am writing because I know I am not alone in how I am feeling. I am writing to push the self-doubt down into the abyss and replace it with an open, honest dialog. I am writing to deconstruct the whirlwind of my thoughts and hopefully provide a bit of clarity about what we should be spending our time doing and where to be focusing our attention and thoughts in a distracted world. Lastly, I am writing because I care about you, yes you, my beloved reader.
I am writing in an attempt to sift through an ocean (of mainly garbage?) that is American consumerism. I am writing because I believe many of us are tired. A culture of tired discontentedness, of always needing more, of self-glory and self-serving, a culture of inflated self-importance, a culture of overworking ourselves, refusing to slow down, and simply too busy to take a thought to its meaningful end. It is a cultural and societal norm that I oftentimes – or, rather, almost every waking moment – think is missing the mark.
We are creatures of habit. But what happens when we stir our routines up a bit? Or, better yet, even schedule time for reflection into our days? I assert that this can transcend our lives from being at the mercy of circumstantial event after event.
Putting one of my spiritual gifts of exhortation to work here, I’d like to invite anyone else still reading (if so, I appreciate you, seriously) to consider joining me in a movement to reflect on what my be some distractions in our lives keeping us from being our true selves.
With so much love,
Joe
Taking a deeper look at life. 