Freezing the Tidal Wave...

If you're at all like me you're really plugged in.  You have a smartphone, a computer, maybe a tablet.  You listen to the news, you read.  There is a virtual tidal wave of information crashing against your cerebellum at any particular moment.  

A few minutes ago I was scrolling down my Facebook news feed, mindlessly scooping up tidbits of intellectual flotsam as I went.  Sheriff Joe's deputies responded to a call of an intruder shot by a homeowner. A high school friend wants to become a cat lady.  A former coworker has a bad rash.  You know, the typical Saturday morning Facebook feed (By the way, you might want to get a cream for that at the pharmacy.).  Then I picked up my phone and glanced at my Twitter account.  The Tweeps are active this morning.  The judge in the Zimmerman trial ruled out voice analysis of a 911 call. Django Unchained used the N word over 100 times and got an award while Paula Deen used it once over twenty years ago and got fired.  I checked my work email to find an update on the inventory process and a rousing encouragement to meet our store goals for the month.  I return a text message from my wife about the bank being closed on Saturday, and that Tuesday we should look into switching banks.

It's a tidal wave.  We live in an age in which we are flooded with a constant stream of facts and soundbites, gossip and memes, images and sounds that are supposed to make us feel more connected to one another than ever before.  However, Americans report being lonelier and more isolated than ever.  Why is that?

It's simple.  It's desensitization.  Just as I mindlessly rolled the wheel of my mouse and perused the treasure of Facebook entries on my news feed, we constantly absorb random bits of information about our surroundings and the people in our lives.  But the stuff that we absorb is just the cast-off, whimsical, non-threatening miscellany that does nothing but continue to deteriorate our attention spans. Squirrel!

Every technology that comes about to purportedly connect us to our world ends up creating more distance between us and the people and events that actually carry some importance in our lives.  We don't take the time to hand-write letters anymore.  Ain't nobody got time for that!  We can't carry on a face to face conversation because we keep getting interrupted by the incessant text messages that continually stir our ever present handsets to life.  We can't read a book, because it's usually done on a screen and there are so many tabs and distractions on the screen as well that we find it impossible to focus.  We think we know what's happening in the lives of those around us because of the pithy comments and status updates we see on our screens, but we fail to realize that behind those memes and pictures are people who are really struggling.

We've become a nation of momma's basement dwelling gamers who have no concept of reality, and it's simply because we're flooding our minds with miscellany and jumbled bits of randomness that our minds simply begin to go numb.  We shut down.  We lose focus.  We glaze over.  Focusing on something important  in our cluttered minds is often like searching a page from a Where's Waldo book.  The trivial crowds out the substantive facts.

We're more stressed than ever.  We're more tired than ever.  We're more distracted than ever.  We're more disconnected than ever.  And we do it to ourselves.  Our "down time" is spent surfing the web, watching television while checking our phones, tweeting and texting, and other forms of distraction.  A person can't even go to a movie theater without being distracted by the many cellphones that randomly light up when sending and receiving text messages.

So, what do we do about it?  We need to freeze the tidal wave.  We need to find solitude.  We need to study silence.  We sometimes simply need to unplug.  Jesus demonstrated this when, though the crowds were demanding His time and his disciples were always around, He "would withdraw to desolate places and pray [Luke 5:15-16]." (See also Mt. 14:23)

Sometimes we just need quiet.  We need to sit in the woods by ourselves.  We need to go for a long walk or a long drive.  We need to shut out the voices and simply listen.  Listen to the silence.  Experience the sounds of the birds in the trees as if it's the first time.  Hear the insects hopping among the blades of grass, the rustling of the leaves, the sound of your own heartbeat. Freeze the tidal wave of life's noise and ponder.  Get away from it all.  It'll completely change your outlook and mood.  It'll help you to refocus and rejuvenate.  

Try it.  You'll be better for it.  Your relationships will benefit.  Your emotions will benefit.  Your connection to God will benefit.

Freeze the tidal wave.

Just a Few Hours To Go...

Thirty year-old Lauren Rousseau was a permanent substitute teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary.  On December 14, 2012 she went to work like any other day.  Anyone who has ever worked with young children knows that the process of corralling youngsters is very similar to the job of herding cats.  This was Lauren's job, and she was hard at it that day.

Thirty-eight year-old Anthony Tempesta was a husband and father who worked as a bond broker for Cantor Fitzgerald in New York.  On September 11, 2001, he was working on the 105th floor of One World Trade Center.  It was his daughter's seventh birthday.  His wife had called him because their front door had been open when she awoke that morning.  He'd stayed on the phone with her while she'd checked the house for intruders.

Army Pfc. Michael Pearson was just twenty-two years old.  He had left a local furniture business job to join the military and have the opportunity to serve his country.  He was known for having a great sense of humor and loved "horsing around with his nieces and nephews."  He was at Fort Hood Army Base in Texas on November 5, 2009.

Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera was a wife and mother who was simply going about her daily activities, vacuuming out her minivan at a Shell station in Kensington, MD on October 3, 2002.  Life doesn't get more normal than that, right?  The mundane tasks of an ordinary day.  However, like those listed above her and like so many more, her time on earth was about to come to an end.

On Monday, two explosions rocked the finish-line area of the Boston Marathon.  Three died and scores were injured. Later, MITPD officer Sean Collier was murdered.  In West, TX, a fertilizer plant exploded killing fourteen and injuring nearly two hundred others.  An 8-month-old girl was killed and her mother badly injured when a driver hit a bus stop in a St. Louis suburb.

The people I've listed here were just like you and me.  They had families, lives, jobs and daily duties.  They had bills, stresses, successes and failures. They were imperfect yet beautiful creatures who were trying to do the best they could in the world.

If you're like me at all, your heart's desire is to give your children a better life than your own.  You work hard, whether in an office, a factory, or in your home.  You end your days tired from your daily activities and you get up in the morning to repeat the cycle.  You have bills that you sometimes have to struggle to pay.  You have stresses from employers, neighbors or family members that cause you to sometimes lose sleep.

Sound familiar?  It's a story as old as time.  We all have such circumstances and stresses.  We have people we love and who love us.  We have certain obligations that we spend a large amount of time trying to meet.  We have joys and we have struggles.  It's just part of being human.

The thing that struck me today, in the wake of this week's violence and mayhem was the suddenness of the events that took their lives.  These people--and the countless just like them--were simply going about their business.  Do you think they awoke on their fateful morning thinking that they had just a few hours to go?

Probably not.  And neither did I this morning when I left for work.  Neither did you when you started your day today.  And yet, today could be that day.  It can come by human hand, by illness, or by happenstance.  Life can be extinguished in an instant. James 4:14 says:  "Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes."

It sounds pretty ominous, doesn't it?  Yet, in another verse, scripture says: "So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

So, what's my point?  The Bible tells us how fleeting life is, yet we're not supposed to worry about it.  Interesting, and so counter-intuitive, right?  It's a piece of cake, actually.  

Yes, life is fleeting.  Yes, life can be snuffed out or radically changed in an unexpected instant.  And no, we are not to worry about it.  And... yes, it is possible!  You see, when you've given your life to Christ, committed your very existence and all your plans and ambitions to Him, the "peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7)  When the Spirit of God thrives within you, there is no room for fear.  God is love and "perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." (1 John 4:18)

When you've given yourself to Christ, you recognize His sovereignty and His power.  He is then in charge of your well-being.  If He is sovereign in our lives, then we must choose to believe that He has the right to decide what comes our way.  That way we can live in that peace that passes understanding--that peace that, no matter what's going on around us, places its trust in our sovereign God.  That's true peace.  That's peace that doesn't rely on my strengths or weaknesses, but places trust in God, Who has no weaknesses!  

You can have this peace.  All you have to do is stop relying on yourself or others for your assurance.  Turn to God, Who is the Author and Finisher of our faith.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.  My email address is 2010.michaelland@gmail.com.