"When one consistently chooses cyberspace over holy space, life becomes a hollow place."
~Ann Voskamp
We need community so deeply that any substitute for meaningful relationships that offers even virtual (translated here: pretend) friends, becomes a success. Social media's promised friendship and open platform for our opinions never asks any accountability of us. No risk; no obligation. We might come to believe that life is really like that....until one day we come to rely on our friends and inner circle loved ones.
When that day comes to us, no virtual friends need apply.
No simple 'likes' will suffice.
No big red easy button.
We need a friend like Jesus, who sometimes calms the storm and sometimes calms his child. But he never withholds his Presence from us, comforting us in all our afflictions so that we may be able to comfort others.
The question arises: are we protecting holy space in our lives, or have we caved under the tsunami of technology engulfing even our own spirituality that yearns to breathe on its own?
Breaking up is hard to do.
We get into comfortable, even dependent, relationships with our phones/computers and before we know it, we're united; the two have become one. It is hard to unplug from the thing that connects us to the larger world all day and night. We live tethered to our various 'life supports' and may not even realize it, because everyone else is too. Mea culpa.
Wireless access just presents an invisible tether, but a needed connection just the same, can I get a witness?
What sphere is it where actually we live and move and have our being? Are we living with the awareness of spiritual truths or are we tied to virtual connections? The skeptics who challenge the reality of knowing God can be the very ones who bow before the altar of cyberspace and put their confidence -- and documents -- in the cloud. Try explaining why the cloud is real but heaven is not, for those who are not believers.
I believe we are not human beings on a spiritual journey; we are spiritual beings on a human journey. That changes our perspective. May this remind me to tune into the still, small voice and turn off the phone for increasing periods of the day. What are we afraid of -- that we'll miss something, you say?
Miss something indeed.
Millions trade a date with the Divine and time together in stillness for a facebook update in a heartbeat....Until it's our last heartbeat. Let us live intentionally, reflecting our devotion and faithfulness fully, and not only in desperation.
For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day. 2 Timothy 1:12
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