From the Rector…
I often fall into temptation in my life simply because I am not paying attention. For whatever reason, laziness, boredom, stupidity, or ignorance, I can find myself drifting rapidly down a stream and going over a waterfall. The signs were all there—the speed of the current picked up, the sounds of rushing, chaotic water grew louder, someone yelling from the bank to turn back before it’s too late. I miss them all, or maybe I don’t, and I continue my path—just because. In his Letter to the Romans, Paul bewails, “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” I don’t want to go over that waterfall, but I do it anyway.
Drifting along in life without true direction or purpose is not necessarily a bad thing. We all need to take time out, allow our brains and our bodies to rest. The challenge is that using our screens—be they our phones, our TVs, or our computers—does not equate to rest. The “blue light” of the screen alone keeps the brain in active overdrive. Mindless scrolling can lead to attention deficit disorder, a loss of time reality (how many times do you start scrolling through Instagram and look up later to realize two hours have gone by?), and a homogenization of belief and thought that doesn’t inspire creativity. When we lose our creative spark, we lose an ability to engage in our world in fresh and new ways–we will do the same things over and over again, even if we are not doing what we want but the very thing we hate.
In this third week of Lent, we invite you to become more intentional about why you use your screens and choose the particular media outlet you so often follow. The reasons may be varied. My mother gets up in the morning and turns on the television. She doesn’t really watch it; she just likes to hear the sound of other human voices in the house as she is a widow who lives alone. She knows why she turns on the TV, but the real question is why she chooses a particular channel. Is it entertaining? Does it bring a positive emotional pay-off that helps her start her day in a good mood? Is it helping her to be informed—if so, of what? Is that information assisting her in engaging in the world from a hopeful posture or does she feel defeated before she finishes her morning cup of tea? Why is she watching the particular thing she is watching?
Asking those questions throughout our day can offer us some insight into the ways we think, believe, and behave around one another. They help us be more mindful of what is increasing our joy and what is robbing us of it. We are responsible for our own emotions—if we don’t understand them or would prefer different emotions, it is up to us to make a change.
We are smack dab in the middle of Lent—a time when many people either have already given up on their Lenten discipline or may begin to falter. If that is you, take some time this week to simply ask yourself why. Lent is a journey in growing our relationship closer to God. Part of the way we do that is by checking in with ourselves and making sure we understand who we are and how we are grounded in this life. Understanding oneself and releasing judgment around what we do and the reasons for it can be a way of opening ourselves to God.
This is what Paul is bewailing when he says he does not do what he wants, but the very thing he hates. The thing Paul hates most in the world is separation from God. Whenever he finds himself moving away from God or becoming more focused on himself and his needs and wants rather than God’s desires, then he is allowing “the sin that dwells within” to become the purveyor of his thoughts and actions.
That “sin that dwells within” is anything that distances us from God. If screens or media sources are distancing us from God, maybe it is in the discovery of why we turn to them that we might heal our hearts and souls and float back into right relationship with God.
Light and Life,
Candice+