Friday, March 11, 2011

Hearing God

"I truly believe that the onslaught of social media, constant barrage of text messages, unlimited interruptions by email and the perpetual buzzing of a cell phone…has created such a wall of sound in our lives…that we can no longer can hear from God. In the 21st Century the quest for food is no longer the driving force that pulls us from our quest for God. What pulls us from our quest for God is the quest for…connectivity. We get distracted from connecting with God to connect with our families through texting, our friends through Facebook and the world through Twitter. We allow our churches to pay for retreats, conferences and events for us to connect with God…yet commit the sin of poor stewardship by spending the entire time with our thumbs flailing on the smartphone keyboard. We stand in the pulpit and declare that God has given us a vision and word…yet we never actually hear it because we fail to shut off the computer, smartphone, e-reader or electronic tablet. We lay awake in fear at night worrying if we are leading our congregations down the wrong road…but not in enough fear to block out the beeps, buzzes, ring tones and pop-up screens."

Chris Elrod

6 comments:

Daniel said...

I agree and thanks for the prodding to make me think and examine what I am doing that gets in the way.

zoe said...

I dropped my phone in a puddle of water on Friday rendering it non-operational, and have had the best time with Jesus this weekend in an incredibly long time.

I agree with this post entirely.

Jared said...

You should post this on Facebook. Seriously though, social media and our iThings are huge distractions. But like many things in life, they can also help grow our faith when used properly. I'm glad I can connect with folks who encourage me spiritually, and I like reading my Bible on the iPad.

paul said...

HA! I gave up Facebook for Lent. Shut it down. Go ahead, try and find me.

mdog said...

we're both back to low-school blogging. yesss.

Joel said...

Welcome back to the blogosphere, my friend!!!