1 CORINTHIANS 7:35 – And this I say for your own profit, not that I may put a leash on you, but for what is proper, and that you may serve the Lord without distraction.

THEME OF THE DAY. UNPLUGGED. Before we move on in today’s nugget, please go back and read the scripture and ponder the last five words particularly – “serve the Lord without distraction.” One more thing before we move on . . . think about the distractions in our lives. This might take a little time. The list is long. And still one more thing before we move on . . . if we take time to really think this through, we would conclude that a significant cause of having a spiritual life that is struggling and too often seems “unreal” and barren is the way too many distractions in our lives. In the spiritual realm, distractions do serious damage in a couple of ways. Distractions keep us from unhurried and uninterrupted time with the Lord in prayer and Word. And where unhurried and uninterrupted time with the Lord in prayer and Word is absent so is a vital Christian life and experience with Him. Next, distractions, if not fought against, will develop a short mental attention span. Distractions cripple us from the lost discipline of spiritual meditation. We are a growing society of mindlessness producing an inability to think long and deep on important areas of vital Christianity like doctrine, theology and God.

As I mentioned in the opening paragraph, distractions in life are many, but I think one very high on the list, maybe on the top of the list in many Christian lives, is technology and that primarily the internet, personal computers, and phones. As much as a blessing is the information age with the ability to “manage” life on a phone, and communicate via text and messenger almost instantaneously, the “blessing” has significant consequences. And this “revelation” came to me with a recent trip to West Virginia. I became “unplugged”. I happened to spend six days in places where I had no cell phone service or access to the internet. Was it hard? Honestly, yes, for about a day, but then it became refreshing, even liberating, but it also taught me lessons I needed. Here are a couple learned from being “unplugged” for nearly a week.

First, we need to be unplugged in order to regain or even learn that real and meaningful communication among people is not done electronically or virtually. We need “face time” not Facebook time in developing relationships among people and especially among Christians. While I was “unplugged”, I was able to talk to a neighbor, face-to-face, for a long time, unhurried and unrushed, on a wide range of topics. I went to a grocery store with my father and ran into someone I haven’t seen in 25 years and spent thirty minutes, face-to-face, catching up. In both cases, there were exchanges of feelings, emotions, and care. One cannot do that in a text, email, or message. And this world of electronic communication is also damaging the church. Christians think it is okay to do “virtual church” or get their “spiritual food” through podcasts, websites, and blogs. It is not okay. God gave us each other in His church to be His church – visible, life-on-life, relationships that are personal, literally, not via a phone or computer.

Next, we need to be unplugged to not lose sight of the wonder of who God is and what He has done. While unplugged, I sat on a porch and watched hummingbirds in a feeder without my phone. I walked through a country meadow marveling over God’s creation without a pressing need to check my email or messages.

My trip to West Virginia was one of mission but not what I thought. I went “home” to officiate a family wedding but God used it to slow me down, wake me up, and teach me of the real, but subtle dangers, of living in a modernized world of great technology. He unplugged me in order to plug me in to what is most important; fostering real relationships of real communication with people and that in person, not via a gadget. But there was more. He also taught me not be so enslaved to technology that I miss seeing Him in all the wonders of creation and life. So, I plan on “unplugging” myself regularly. I need it. And perhaps you do also. Is it hard? It could be, but the benefits and lessons learned will help us keep our phones, computers, and all the blessings of the internet in their proper places; tools we use wisely instead of masters who enslave us or idols we hold.

PRAYER: “Father, help me not to make the good things You give me in life idols in my life.”

QUOTE: “Either we fight distractions in our lives to seek the Lord or we will succumb to distractions and neglect the Lord”