Letters from North
America
I’d
suspect many of you have
had the same experience
that I am about to
describe. You go to
church and listen to a
sermon and you’d swear
the preacher has been
reading your mail or
listening in on your
conversations.
“How’d he know I’ve been
thinking about that very
thing?” you ask
yourself. Truth to tell,
he didn’t, but his
message that day was
broad enough to cover
just about everyone
sitting out in those
pews listening to him
speak.
Last week our pastor
held up a cell phone and
made this statement.
“This thing will kill
your family.” That got
our attention. How can a
cell phone kill our
family we all wondered?
But he went on to
explain.
We have become a society
that lives with this
device in our hands far
too much. We cannot
concentrate on our work,
our family; ourselves
without constantly
looking at it to see if
anyone has called or
have we missed speaking
with anyone. Often
obviously ignoring the
people we are in contact
with at the time. How
many times have we been
with someone who is
either texting to
someone while we are
having a conversation or
who stops our
conversation to grab
some personal call that
you can tell isn’t that
important? How many
times have we done this
ourselves without even
thinking about how this
looks to those around
us?
Our lives are being
controlled by technology
and so called ‘social
contact’ programs. I
know people who
chronicle their entire
lives with 140 character
messages on Twitter. Who
cares if they are going
to get a cup of coffee
or going to get their
car washed? I don’t and
I suspect a lot of other
people could care less
as well, but it’s the
‘in’ thing and there are
those lemmings that will
follow the leader no
matter how high the
cliff. Then there is
‘Facebook’ ….a program
used by millions who are
competing to see how
many ‘friends’ they can
sign up. I have one of
these accounts and I get
so-called friend
requests from people
I’ve never heard of or
want to be friends with.
Why do I care about
someone in Boise that I
don’t know and will
never meet? Why waste my
time reading about their
lives?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m
not saying these things
are all bad, but when
they begin to take time
away from the real
people in our lives,
it’s time to take
control of ourselves.
How many times have you
been out to dinner and
observed a couple with
their two kids sitting
at a table close to you.
The kids are playing
some kind of video game
or have s Game Boy
working the entire
course of the meal. The
parents are not talking
to the kids and the kids
aren’t talking to the
parents. Who learns from
this experience? No one,
that’s who. The parents
are at a loss as to what
is happening in their
kids lives and the kids
aren’t gathering any
wisdom or shared
experiences from their
parents.
Our preacher pointed out
that thirty five and
forty year old men who
are playing softball
risk more than injuring
themselves, they are
possibly injuring their
families as well. There
is no senior league for
them. If they are
playing sports and
ignoring their wives and
kids, they need to
rethink their
priorities. There are
only so many hours in
any given day.
By the time you add in
all of the time we spend
with relationships in
our family, friends,
work, school, neighbors,
charity and yes, our
church….we can get
pretty strung out with
our time can’t we? There
doesn’t seem to be many
hours left in the day
for a lot of things,
including ourselves. We
get so busy wrapped up
in staying in touch with
others that oftentimes
we hardly know that we
have eliminated any time
for ourselves or those
closest to us.
Take a deep breath, grab
a glass of cold tea, ice
water or beer and just
sit quietly by yourself
for a few minutes. Don’t
answer the phone, turn
that computer off. Take
that IPod out of your
ears and just let your
brain coast downhill for
awhile. Think about all
of the good things in
your life, forget the
bad, concentrate on the
people living in your
house. You’ll be a
better person for it, I
guarantee it.
