During my daily review of RSS feeds I found this article on Religion Dispatches. As one who utilizes technology I found this article an interesting challenge, but I have a meeting on Friday and Saturday that requires technology.
Turn Off, Slow Down, Drop In: The Digital Generation Reinvents the Sabbath
by Elizabeth Drescher | Feb. 24, 2011 | Religion Dispatches
My face-to-face connection to Sarah and Adam Walker Cleaveland is thin. Nonetheless, Sarah and I were “friends” on Facebook, which, in turn, linked me to Adam’s robust social media presence. So I was privy to the deep joy that surrounded the couple last fall as they celebrated the halfway mark of Sarah’s pregnancy with twin boys. I also learned almost immediately, it seemed, when the pregnancy came to a wrenching, premature end on October 25, 2010, and the couple lost their 19-week-old sons, Micah and Judah.
Adam and Sarah have been on my mind a great deal this week as I reflect on a very different social media experience: next weekend’s National Day of Unplugging, from sunset on March 4 to sunset on March 5—a day when “people across the nation will reclaim time, slow down their lives and reconnect with friends, family, the community, and themselves.” Reboot, the nonprofit sponsoring the event as part of their Sabbath Manifesto project, includes “Ten Principles” to guide participation: 1) Avoid technology; 2) Connect with loved ones; 3) Nurture your health; 4) Get outside; 5) Avoid commerce; 6) Light candles; 7) Drink wine; 8) Eat bread; 9) Find silence; 10) Give back. But, according the group’s website, the key principle of focus for the day is theavoidance of technology.
Every Wednesday morning at 8:30 am (central time) the Oklahoma Regional staff (professional and office) gather for devotion. Someone in our group prepares something brief. We usually offer prayer concerns. We do with with deployed staff via web video conference. It allows us to see one another as well as be heard. Today, I led devotion and this is what I offered.
Check-In Time: How is your spirit today?
Matthew 6:24-34
(NRSV)
24“No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
25“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? 28And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34“So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.
Prayer: A time of silence when persons offered intercessory prayer by naming persons, situations, and congregations out loud. I closed with spoken words of prayer.
A Parting Story
From one of my favorite books, Tales of a Magic Monastery. The story is titled, NOW.
I had just one desire — to give myself completely to God. So, I headed for the monastery. An old monk asked me, “What is it you want?”
I said, “I just want to give myself to God.”
I expected him to be gentle, fatherly, but he shouted at me, “NOW!” I was stunned. He shouted again, “NOW!” Then he reached for a club and came after me. I turned and ran. He kept coming after me, brandishing his club and shouting, “NOW, NOW.”
That was years ago. He still follows me, wherever I go. Always that stick, always that “NOW!”