Anyone else NOT have a smartphone? I didn't put it on my Christmas list this year but I came to regret this move on Christmas morning when my cousins were showing off theirs. You know that commercial on T.V. where the actors and actresses drop their phone in their coffees, throw their phone of the roof, and run over it with their car? They do this in order to have an excuse to buy the newest update of a smartphone. Yeah, well I was plotting a similar death for my phone.
Two days ago, however, I caught about three minutes of a show on T.V. I'm not sure if it was 60 Minutes or not, but it was that kind of show. They had four college aged girls give up their smartphones for a certain period of time (maybe a week? Hey, I only caught three minutes of this show!). All four girls were roommates, so they took the challenge together. I'm sure it doesn't take a genius to figure out that their conversations and relationships improved and their lives felt more free. It turns out, they didn't really miss their smartphones. It's no news flash that smartphones keep people distracted. But all the same, it's incredibly important to recognize this every single day! Smartphones are a distraction to life...and a dangerous one at that! After this program, I was really happy to have my non-smartphone.
In a couple of his books, Matthew Kelly talks about the amount of noise in our lives. We have so many things distracting us from living our lives - television, music, Facebook, and especially our smartphones that give us access to anything at any time. All of these things are fine in moderation, but can be extremely detrimental when we allow the noise to block out our God. Even when we only have 30 seconds of downtime, we check our phones despite the fact that we checked it two minutes ago. And if we have 30 minutes to kill, we check our email and Facebook...for the eighth time that day. We are afraid of being left out, of being disconnected. Noise is a dangerous thing because we don't realize it's happening. What if you spent that 30 seconds appreciating something in front of you? What if you spent those 30 minutes reading a spiritual book or having a conversation with God? It takes intentionality but the rewards are a better spiritual life.
There is so much noise in our lives that it becomes hard to hear the voice of God. What noises can you turn off today?
Until next time,
Mel
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