If I were to log off, unplug, and listen…

In these days of ever quickening change and biased arguments, it is easy to get discouraged.  If I fill up on news-as-entertainment television, get bogged down in religious or political arguments on Facebook, or get caught up in the issue du jour, I end up feeling depleted, stressed, and frustrated.  It seems to me that our public milieu has increasingly become one of biased, polarized debate. I may be inclined, as many people do, to escape by satiating on the ubiquitous outlets for entertainment- where I get filled up with even more of the same and left more depleted than I was when I came. No time to rest or be at peace with one’s self.

But in my back pocket, waiting to be remembered, is another way to live that I can rely on.  And it’s all about changing focus. It is an exciting time to be alive.  Advancements in technology are progressing at a frenetic pace: from bionic arms for amputees, to new wonder materials, like Ozy, that will be in everything, making possible space exploration and advancements in construction to medicine.  New progress in fighting diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s and ALS.  Artificially grown replacement organs.  Nanotechnology. Space exploration and the push to send people to mars.  New ways to interact with nature: collaborating with nature to fight damage to the planet.  Solar roadways that could generate 3X the power needed by the US and would always be snow free. All this good stuff is going on.  We need a media outlet for good news.

There is one. And as the world speeds up, it will be even more important. It involves patience. It involves quiet reflection.  It involves challenging study of ancient and modern texts alike.  It involves putting aside myself, and seeking something bigger.  And the wonderful thing about it is that something bigger is just waiting for me to stop, sit down, turn off the TV, log out, and unplug.  As soon as I quiet the noise, I hear a whisper coming to me.  And that whisper has an intelligence and it has love for the world, for people, for me.

It speaks of ancient wisdom.  I can be a student again, pulling my chair up to some of the most amazing, wise and loving people to ever grace the page with their thoughts.  And it is because they were just writing what they heard from a force that is greater than all of this.  A force of love and patience and kindness that causes us to stop running from ourselves and just exist in peace.  It coaxes me to get involved in community, where I am confronted with loving people who believe in the same good creator as me.  And together we go out and put our hand to the plow making the world a better place for everyone to live by loving the downtrodden, the poor and the sick, all the while getting filled up and refreshed every day.  And I do not have to have the lofty goal of making the world a better place.  It flows naturally out of the peace and love I am filled with every morning before work when I get up at 6:30am, pray a simple prayer and read. Prompted by a need for conscious contact with God for Nicotine Anonymous, I started a simple Morning Prayer routine. It has been the best thing for my emotional and spiritual health I have ever done. If I am selfish, as we humans are, and just seek peace and pull out my bible and say a prayer, my actions soon follow this leading, filled with love practically on their own. But it is not happening by itself. There is a wisdom behind it because God knew to make it this way.

This is what Christianity is for me. It is what happens when I log off, unplug, stop moving, and relax. It is for everybody, from bible scholars to those of us who just like to read, to people who don’t read but take a moment to pray for trust in something greater.  It is for those of us who have endured pain and suffering, to those who have not.  For intellectual giants to simple souls, to everybody in between.  It is truly a gem that is just waiting to be found in the stillness when I stop and listen.