Thank you for joining us!
Before we begin our devotional, I wanted to share a Comment Highlight from last week:
On our essay about Saint Columba, TBollen commented:
Very nice, and an insight into a personage with whom I am unfamiliar. Also I was drawn to this quote of yours: "We cannot expect perfection from our guides and teachers, but what we can hope for—and indeed, should strive for—is to see them reaching for God’s grace, at every turn, and displaying that grace in their own lives." It's a sign of maturity, I think, when we learn to accept the flaws in those we admire. What's more, those we most admire are not those whose flaws are small, but those whose failings drive them quickly toward God (often on their knees) for forgiveness. Psalm 51 comes to mind. I think the penitent heart behind Psalm 51 is one of the chief reasons we so admire the deeply flawed King David.
Very insightful, TBollen, and a welcome reminder! Thank you so much for sharing!
If you want a chance to be featured in next week’s Comment Highlight, all you have to do is post a comment on any of this week’s posts or threads. That’s it!
Now, on with this week’s devotional…
there's nothing in my pocket and only coffee in my hand; the time passes with purpose, and I am unaware of the hour; but this coffeeshop has become a place outside of time, the steam rising from my cup and the friend across the table and the crowd passing to and fro are weightless, suspended; a good conversation made sacred, eternity in a single moment.
Over the weekend I met up with a dear friend for coffee. And for various reasons, I decided to leave my phone at home.
It wasn’t virtue that saw me walking phoneless into the day; it just kind of happened that way. And I spent around six to seven hours unmoored. No ever-present clock, no buzzing in my pocket, no temptation to check my notifications when my friend got up to use the restroom.
It took a bit of time to get used to it. To ignore the instinct to reach for something that wasn’t there. To realize that what I thought was a buzzing in my pocket was a phantom; there was nothing there to buzz.
The impression it left on me was simple, yet profound: my ability to focus has been strained by the impulse to be constantly moving, checking, refreshing, and connected.
This isn’t a new message. We’ve all read countless think-pieces on this phenomenon, so nothing I’m saying is new. But after yesterday I thought, and not for the first time, that I’ve lost my ability to truly focus on the present. That I am tied to something else, and always unsatisfied.
The good news is that “lost” doesn’t mean “gone”. Not always. Something lost can usually be found, if we look. It’s just misplaced; we’ve just set it down somewhere we wouldn’t otherwise. We’ve dropped it. We’ve swept it aside, forgetting how important it is until we realize that we need it.
My ability to focus hasn’t disappeared completely, I just need to find it. And a handful of hours without a phone, listening and sharing and sipping coffee and staring out into the rainy street of a June day…that’s a pretty good place to start the search.
Thank you for reading!
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I went on a hike yesterday with my husband and my mother in law. Without my phone, granted I had my apple watch for fitness tracking. It's true—we can all mindlessly reach for our technology, like it's some kind of magnet. Well, I guess there's beauty in the process of remembering, which is to forget first.
Ty for the sweet lesson today.