(I'm working on my message for Sunday, "Contentment," and this is an excerpt from my book Say Yes to No that ties together contentment, technology, and solitude.)
The reason we're so often discontent and distracted is not just the lure of technology’s buzz; it’s the impossibility of concentration
when we’re connected to the Internet 24/7 or glued to the Tube. As the contemporary
rock band, Switchfoot cries out:
I'm a nervous wreck but I'll bet
that that TV set
tells us what we want to hear.
We need to disconnect from our techie toys and spend time alone. The psalmist writes with obvious contentment, “I have calmed and quieted my soul.” But who does this? Henri Nouwen, a natural extrovert, learned the value of solitude. And yet time alone is not all easy. He employed a striking image to describe this difficulty: “As soon as I decide to stay in solitude, confusing ideas, disturbing images, wild fantasies, and weird associations jump about in my mind like monkeys in a banana tree.” In fact, he formulated this frustration into a moving prayer:
Why, O Lord, is it so hard for me to keep my heart directed toward you? Do I keep wondering, in the center of my being, whether you will give me all I need if I just keep my eyes on you?
Please accept my distractions, my fatigue, my irritations, and my faithless wanderings. You know me more deeply and fully than I know myself. You love me with a greater love than I can love myself. You even offer me more than I desire. Look at me, see me in all my misery and inner confusion, and let me sense your presence in the midst of my turmoil.
So
what does this tell us about the power of no? Technology, which promised free time
and peace, has torn us apart, and we have lost integration. We have forgotten
to listen to the rhythm of our bodies and souls. We have taken on the incessant
roar of the machines that surround us. Instead of living with healthy rhythms,
we only have what the popular, Grammy-winning pop duo, Steely Dan, described
with utter succinctness, “I hear my insides, the mechanized hum of another
world.”
When we disconnect in order to seek solitude, we are on the way to finding contentment.
When we disconnect in order to seek solitude, we are on the way to finding contentment.
2 comments:
Been studying Luke and am struck by how often Jesus retreats to a lonely place to pray. Don't we need the same?
Responding to your sermon on contentment...ties here with disconnecting from the TV commercials that feed the "More Monster" with in us.
You said gratefulness was a key...reminded me of a poem I wrote a while back:
On Gratefulness & Gravity (08)
"Anxiety in the heart... weighs it down" ( Prov. 12:25)
There is a gravity to money,
That makes it hard to raise.
Gravity is felt in every cent spent,
And in it's draw on our lives.
Gratefulness grows against gravity.
It flowers in a brighter vision,
Above the elemental and earthly mire.
Our economics need not be tied
To the gravity of the coin
As we watch it fall into a wishing well.
-Bill Jackson, Oroville CA
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