Slate magazine’s William Saletan indicts our culture stating: “Every time you answer your cell phone in traffic, squander your workday on YouTube, text a colleague during dinner, or turn on the TV to escape your kids, you’re leaving this world. You’re neglecting the people around you, sometimes at the risk of killing them.”
Wow! And he didn’t even mention the addictive nature of online games. Or Internet porn and how it depersonalizes and destroys the sacredness of sex.
We might be tempted to debate Saletan. But rather than getting defensive, it may be wise to take a look at our own priorities. It’s likely we’ll all find something out of whack. I can reach out to the people God places in my path—those who need an encouraging word or who may be hurting and need my listening ear. But instead, I put on the headphones and vanish into iPod world or lose myself in a laptop DVD. I shun human community for the loneliness of something less.
Solitude has its place. Jesus had a habit of slipping away to be alone. But when He did, He found community with His heavenly Father. And then He returned to His ministry to others (Mark 1:35-38).
In the Psalms, we read how the poet yearned for community with God. “I long, yes, I faint with longing to enter the courts of the Lord,” he wrote (84:2). And he craved the community with others that grows out of unity with the Father. “What joy for those who can live in Your house, always singing Your praises” (Psalm 84:4).
Perhaps it’s time to exchange our headphones for some bona fide interaction with God and His children. By doing so, we’ll lose the loneliness of the virtual world and find the joy of genuine community.
More:
Read Acts 2:42 to discover how believers in the early New Testament church lived out community.
Next:
What do you do for relaxation? How do your times of solitude cause you to ponder God’s character and help you to enjoy the company of others?
Soldier4Christ on February 20, 2011 at 6:00 am
This devotion is a powerful reminder to all of us I am sure of just how we let the things in this world get in the way of our walk with the Lord. We spend so much time with all the distractions of the modern world, things that are called entertainment that leave ourselves unavailable for those that really need us. Satan uses things like TV, Ipod’s , cell phones and the internet against us. Keeping our eyes off Christ and that way he doesn’t have to work so hard. But that said just like money, those things aren’t evil in and of themselves but rather it is what we do with them that determines if they are being used for good or for evil.
tim gustafson on February 21, 2011 at 8:16 am
Agreed. We do need to be careful not to make sweeping prohibitions of various things simply because they are used for the wrong reasons. It’s so easy to become like the Pharisees. As followers of Jesus, we do not live a rules-based life, but a love-based life.
eppistle on February 20, 2011 at 4:34 pm
Whitney Houston sang “Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all.” People quote Matthew 22:39 and then say that you can’t love others adequately until you love yourself. But that verse and Ephesians 5:29 seem to indicate that we are naturally self-loving people who look out for our own interests above others. Instead the Bible exhorts us to deny ourselves (Matthew 16:24) and to “do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves” (Philippians 2:3). Many of us have allowed technology to suck us into our small little world, when we need to get out of that world and love and enjoy God and others.
tim gustafson on February 21, 2011 at 8:18 am
“Enjoy God and others.” That’s great! Sitting next to someone on the bus or the airplane and never speaking to them because you both are listening to your i-pod is probably not what Jesus had in mind. : )
AManofGod on February 20, 2011 at 7:45 pm
Self indulgence is a problem many of have. We don’t think about it often but this blog brought that to my mind. We often think of “me” and “my needs” instead of humbly serving others. I used to say that I am not Jesus and I couldn’t be that self sacrificial but we must strive for that. To deny self is the only real way to get closer to God.
I have noticed in my personal relationships that the more I try to get my needs met the more other people tend to move away. Its not that they don’t care [although it could be] but most people are so caught up in their own needs they have little time for mine. Is the answer to become like them? Is the answer to ask “what is in it for me”? I think NOT! The answer is to seek that communion with God where all our needs will be met and all our desires fulfilled.
That is what I am striving for.
AManofGod
tim gustafson on February 21, 2011 at 8:11 am
Confession time: This article is as convicting to me as when I wrote it! It’s a constant battle to put aside all the distractions we have and truly interact with the people God has placed in my life. I’m embarrassed to admit that.
AManofGod on February 21, 2011 at 8:45 am
Pastor Tim you are not alone. I need reminding and reaffirmation on this topic almost daily! Thank God that we are allowed many MANY chances to see the truth and if we forget God will put situations and/or people (like you and this blog) in our lives as a reminder.
AManofGod
mike wittmer on February 21, 2011 at 8:48 am
Thanks, Tim. I think I will need to read this at least once a week! I wonder if Satan’s biggest strategy with us today is simply distraction. Flood our lives with so many shiny bells and whistles that prayer and solitude and meaningful conversation becomes impossible.
pastortoney on February 28, 2011 at 8:51 pm
There is nothing more important to me than to have such a closeness with GOD that nothing else matters to me in life…