Life Is More Than Screens
Life is more than screens
We spend large portions of our day looking at screens. Pixelated images created out of primary colors. Screens are windows. Windows from which we can talk to other people. Observe art. Do work. Or play games. There's nothing inherently wrong with screens. But we were not made for them. They were made for us. Who is the master in your relationship with screens? Do you think it's interesting that a large percentage of our sexual sin (or at least what arouses us into sin) occurs from screens. There's an anonymity, a distance, a veneer the screen gives both you and what you look at that can be dangerous. Even if it doesn’t tempt you to sexual sin, it has other implications on your soul. They train us, our devices. And they train us to treat God and time with Him like we do our apps.
But God doesn’t work that way. We can’t hurry fellowship. We must be mindful about how our screens are changing our interactions with others and God.
A rainy day
It's a rainy day here in my town. I've been quite stressed lately and operating with terrible sleep and cheap rest. Lots of games, lots of videos, lots of reading via a screen. Cheap rest. I got home a bit ago and made a cup of peach and citrus tea. Put on some music and started reading C.S. Lewis' first book in his Narnia series. Real tea. Real book. Real music. Nothing via a screen. It felt slow. At first, painfully slow. There was no flashing color or things for my eyes to jump to and fro. I felt like I had to slow myself down to read and concentrate.
Though, as I began to slow, I sipped my cooling tea and was more aware of its taste. Warm and peachy. I also became aware that my book smelled like... well... a book. The old book kind that causes you to think you are smarter than you are. My brain felt a little bit less cluttered.
Screens change us
Screens are great. I love games and I'm probably going to play one later. But we must be aware of the screen's reign over us. It’s implications on our lives.
In Tony Reinke’s book 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You he writes:
“The more we take refuge in distraction, the more habituated we become to mere stimulation and the more desensitized to delight. We lose our capacity to stop and ponder something deeply, to admire something beautiful for its own sake, to lose ourselves in the passion for a game, a story, or a person.”
Our screens are changing us.
The reason we can struggle to sit with God in deep fellowship might be because the only way we know how to be is quick, flicking through info. Screens have killed our ability to linger. Life is more than screens, take some time away from them and you might find some healing.
Trying to look at screens less so I can look at God and others more intently,
Josh.