Don't Walk Into a Vehicle

Reading is a lost art. I don’t mean reading a facebook post or a news article. I mean curling up on the couch and reading a good book for hours. I have loved to read since childhood but unfortunately, I am not an as avid reader as I used to be. Like many others I have sadly been caught up in this technological, social media, hamster in a ball kind of busy culture of which we live. We want passive entertainment, to turn our mind off and dumbly allow media to shape our thoughts, our logic, our worldviews. There is little active critical thinking these days. But reading is active - your mind is doing the work to form the words from the pages, open up your imagination, expand your vocabulary, sharpen your intelligence.

I am not completely downing all media. I do believe there is a time and place for such and I certainly believe there should be appreciation for the creativity and talent that is poured into some medias. Some of my favorite movies have moved me in powerful ways. When used correctly media can be positive and a witnessing tool. Media has its place but it has become a drug. We are addicted to being in front of a screen.

Recently I was walking through a parking lot. I walked past a woman who was walking quickly, singularly focused on her phone. About 10-15 seconds after I past her, I heard someone yell “pay attention, watch where you are going”. I turned around to see what happened. The young woman had obviously almost ran into a vehicle as they were attempting to back out of their parking space. Let me make this picture clear. It was not the driver of the vehicle was not paying attention, they had almost fully backed out of their space. It was the girl that almost walked directly into the vehicle because she was looking straight down at her phone. Ashamedly for our culture, scenarios like this are not uncommon anymore. I take from this two things specifically. One: don’t be an idiot and put down your phone. Watch where you are going physically, especially around moving vehicles. Second: don’t be so tunnel visioned to your phone or media that you cannot see where you are going mentally and spiritually. Let that sink in. I would venture to say most of us spend more time on some sort of media than we do in prayer and devotion. How tragic.

At the heart this is a spiritual issue. But I also believe it is a matter of our lack of emphasis on intelligence, sharpening our minds, and critically thinking (which is also a spiritual issue). God gave us beautiful, such intricate minds with unfathomable capability. Why are we dumbing them down day after day. The ultimate fix to this is refocusing on the Lord and prayerfully seeking what He wants us to do with our spare time. I also feel that a great way of curbing our media addiction is to pick up a book. Work these mind the Lord gifted to us. Don’t pick up garbage. Just because it is a book does not mean it will better your life. You can get lies, violence, porn, sin of any kind in book form as well. Read something that challenges your mind, inspires you, tickles your imagination, and pushes you to be a better person in Christ.