Technological Generation

On my way home from dinner tonight my husband told me that when we arrived at home he was going to watch some football and go to bed, and asked if that's what I would be doing as well. I shrugged non-nonchalantly and he said "well not JUST watch football, obviously, you'd have your laptop too." He then commented on how we always have more than one electronic entertaining us at one time, and how it'd be fun to just use one sometime. I reminded him that we did when we watched a movie the other night and he said it didn't count because we were doing another activity (putting together a ridiculously poorly designed changing table). The conversation was about 15 seconds long, but it made me think for the remainder of our 20 minute car ride about the truth behind what he said.

We are a technological generation. Cell phones, laptops, Ipads, mp3 players, Kindles, Blackberries. We have it all, and we use it all, sometimes all at once, on a daily basis. Our minds are so completely over stimulated that we've become almost "immune" to the effects of a single event. When was the last time that you watched a movie, and just the movie? In the theater, we are texting; at home, we're on our laptops. We've become so used to one thing, we now need more to keep our attention - it's like an addiction. Rather, I'd say it IS an addiction. And almost everyone I know is "guilty" of this - myself included, and probably more so than others.

At the same time, I desire to know God, and often wonder how I can know him more? How can I be closer? Psalm 46:10 tells us. "Be still and know that I am God"

Be still.

It seems an almost impossible feat these days! And I believe it is MEANT to be that way. Now, I am not one of those "Technology is evil" people. No no. I love the technology that we have and what it has done for our world. Mostly. Medical advances have kept my daughters alive, the internet helps us keep in touch with people we would otherwise lose contact with, we can find information that we need in the blink of an eye, computers make things much more convenient. But there's another side to the coin. Pornography is available at our fingertips at any second, movies bombard us with sex, drugs, and violence, and the radio is no better. They are overwhelming distractions, all designed to pull our attention away from the one voice that matters. The smallest voice in the crowd. The one that merely whispers our name and waits for us to listen and respond.

Even while I was in the midst of these things, and asking God to speak to me, to reveal His voice to me, my thoughts drifted with the radio. It was truly a struggle to keep my focus on my prayer, and I could literally feel my mind being tugged away. It reminded me of that video that I saw on the internet - it was a drama put to the song "Everything" by Lifehouse. I'm sure you've seen it, if you haven't you can watch it here. Satan does not want us to be still. He wants us to rush rush rush through life, from one mindless distraction to another, in order to keep us from hearing what God has to say.

So tonight I said a prayer. I asked God to still my heart, quiet my mind, and whisper to me that I might hear him. I want to hear him. I need to hear him.

Don't you?