Dear Cornerstone Family,
Coming out of last week’s sermon, I had a number of folks ask me about strategies for getting away with God for an extended period of time. Sometime in the next few weeks, I plan to take time to write about the historic Christian practice of retreat and discuss a few commitments I’ve made over the years for extended communion with God that have made a big difference. If that interests you, and I hope it does, watch this space!
That said, the problem we often face is not so much carving out the time to be alone with God but staying present and attentive to God when you’re alone with Him. To be honest, I find this to be the bigger challenge!
Along this line, I ran across the phrase “cultivated inattention” this week in an article Jordan Peters wrote in Local Culture. It’s a phrase the late Christopher Lasch coined to describe technology’s formative impact on human psyche. Lasch argued that the more exposure to technological mediums, especially the sensory stimulating encounters of video games, movies, etc. the more our minds are bent toward escaping from rather than engaging with reality.
Neil Gabler calls this phenomenon being “sensationalized.” According to Gabler, we are “sensationalized” when our attention can be held in almost trance-like devotion during some technological encounter, but we’re unable to sit still on the porch and listen to the rain fall for ten minutes or read a book for a half hour without checking our phone. It’s not just that we lose interest in reality, though that is true, too. It’s that our minds are increasingly unable to maintain the attention needed to engage with the real world in a sustained and meaningful way.
As a culture, we are like Cypher in the 1999 hit move The Matrix. He knows he’s inside a simulated reality that has no meaning in itself, but he has no desire to get out of it because the simulated reality gives him the escape his mind wants—escape from the troubles and challenges of the real world.
It is true; we must escape. As we saw last week, Jesus escaped from the crowd in Mark 1:35. He didn’t, however, escape into a simulated, artificial world. Rather, he escaped into ultimate reality. That is, he ran toward the thing most real and true—namely, His Father. This is the kind escape we need. When was the last time you escaped with God?
As you ponder that question, remember this: your attention is a valuable gift. You only have so much of it to give, and the world is jockeying for it in a thousand different ways. Take inventory of the things that are getting your attention. Then consider what are the things that are really worth your attention? Finally, what would it take for you to be more attentive to the things that deserve your attention? Don’t answer quickly. Sit with these questions for a while. Better yet, escape to ultimate reality by sitting with God and praying through these matters. Who knows? You might find time with God was the answer all along.
Your servant,
