“After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone.” Matthew 14:23, NIV
What is the one thing almost everyone carries with them no matter where they are, day or night? The “thing” commands our attention on a whim; it has trained us to know how to keep it alive, even though sometimes we wish it did not exist. The “thing” has complete control over our time and attention to the exclusion of others who may desire our attention, including those we love. We may be in an important meeting or driving a vehicle that requires our total mindfulness, yet when it dings or rings, it demands that at all costs, we must respond to its bidding.
No doubt you have figured out that the “thing” is your cell phone. Like a god that we worship above everything and everyone else, the chunk of steel has captured the minds and sadly, the hearts of every person. If you doubt these words, then I challenge you to put it in a drawer for one week and live without it! Can you do it?
Please understand, friend, I too have a cell phone and as I type these words, it is about six inches from my right hand. Oh, the phone, like almost anything on earth, can be used for good but if we allow it to control us, then we have granted it permission to be our god.
Jesus left the multitudes at the end of the day to be in solitude with God, his Father. I worry that humans no longer know how or have the discipline to lay everything else aside, including our phone, to spend time with the Creator of the universe. We have an enemy who delights when we bow down to the “tyranny of the urgent,” such as a ringing phone and ignore each other, and God. Let us commit to be like Jesus and retreat from our devices for time to be with our loving Father who is calling us right now. Will you answer?