Don't Waste a Long Line
Learning to see God in the mundande
The other day I found myself where we all do from time to time.
In a long line waiting for coffee. Surprisingly, I left my phone in the car and only had my wallet with me. So, I stood there. Looking around, letting my thoughts keep me company.
And being the curious (or nosey?) person that I am, my eyes kept drifting to the guy in front of me.
As I watched him, he bounced around from app to app on his phone. Checking Twitter then watching a golf video, then scrolling through Amazon then DoorDash and even his banking app. Like a golden retriever surrounded by squirrels, he bounced around the apps on his phone. Distancing himself from mundanity, of waiting in line on a dreadry Sunday afternoon.
A Pinball Problem
While I would love to paint myself as righteously living in the moment, giving myself to prayer and supplication whenever I’m bored in line, that would be a lie.
The truth is, this guy and I are two sides of the same coin.
Both of us are prone to the flashy distractions of our devices more than the boring stillness required of a long line. My attention can be like a pinball richocheting off the apps on my phone and computer. Any inconvenience, any momentary pause, or any long line in a coffee shop and my mind is lost in a tsunami of digital distraction.
And this has serious implications for my relationship with God.
The Cost of Distraction
If we can't patiently wait in line for a cup of coffee, how can we patiently wait on God?
If we find the slow moments of our daily lives intolerable, how will we tolerate the dark nights of the soul? The times when God seems distant and our only course of action is to "wait on the Lord"?
Our phones are engineering us to resist the slow, the boring, the still, and the mundane. But the testimony of the spiritually astute throughout church history is that these are the exact circumstances in which God prefers to speak! In fact, he is always speaking. We just need these moments to slow down and pay attention to him.
Mark 4, Jesus tells his followers, "Pay attention to what you hear." I think he knew something. We all come to realize at different points that what we hear - the inputs into our minds - shape us. The "noise" of social media, mainstream news, podcasts, and YouTube will affect our attention, our ideas, and our affections, and ultimately our allegiance.
So “pay attention to what you hear. The measure you use will be measured to you.” (Mark 4:24).