Busyness, chatter, and God

It’s busy, this 21st century. It’s a technologist’s dream. We’ve got it all—talk radio, nonstop TV news, Facebook, and Twitter. All the information and communication exchange you want—and more.

Sure, it’s good to be wired—to know that we have virtual families and friends at the tap of a TV remote or a laptop key. We can chat and chat. Or, be glued to the 24-hour news channels. But are we also losing something? Is there time to invite God to join our “spiritual Facebook”? Time for that closeness with Him that informs us He’s the very essence of who we are—that we’re spiritual, made in the likeness of Spirit or Soul?

Speaking of silent communion with God, Mary Baker Eddy gave us this guidance: “In order to pray aright, we must enter into the closet and shut the door. We must close the lips and silence the material senses. In the quiet sanctuary of earnest longings, we must deny sin and plead God’s allness.” Later, in the next paragraph, she referred to receiving that wonderful divine communication that flows from God to each of us as His idea, “Christians rejoice in secret beauty and bounty, hidden from the world, but known to God” (Science and Health).

Yet it’s all too easy to get caught up in the noise around us—and forget all about that “secret beauty and bounty.”

Recently, for instance, my wife and I had to do some traveling. Dates were set, airline reservations were made, and we were looking forward to our trip—until I caught part of a television newscast. A plane had gone down. There were no survivors. My heart went out to those lost in the incident, as well as their families and friends. Soon I started to feel anxious about our impending flight. It didn’t help when I realized that we’d be flying on the same type of aircraft that crashed.

As I worked through the fear from a spiritual standpoint, realizing more fully that God would provide the safety and security we needed, I eventually found peace. And the flight to our destination was uneventful.

But then I heard on television about another plane accident—again involving the same type of plane that had gone down before, and the same model we were due to fly home on.

Once again, I started to pray. But I also read a newspaper account about the latest crash, including possible causes and pictures of the crash. Fear rose to the surface, and I again knew I had to have a complete healing in my thought.

I could see that all of us need to be ever so selective about what we take in regarding stories of tragedy—of accident, disease, or other catastrophes. So often they are sensationalized. Such distractions can cause us to miss the mark in understanding our relationship to God—our pure and secure status as His wholly spiritual sons and daughters. Remember Jesus’ words of some 2,000 years ago—pre-TV and radio, pre-Web, pre-computer: “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” And in that same chapter he urged, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness.”

In the Manual of The Mother Church, Mary Baker Eddy gave similar counsel in the By-Law “Church Organizations Ample”: “Members of this Church shall not unite with organizations which impede their progress in Christian Science. God requires our whole heart, and He supplies within the wide channels of The Mother Church dutiful and sufficient occupation for all its members” (p. 44).

Getting overly wrapped up in any form of human communication can be nonproductive, much like devoting too much time and energy to an organization that draws our focus away from God.

Certainly we can value 21st-century communication technology for the wonderful tool that it is. But let’s not forget that “God requires our whole heart.” That’s straightforward counsel for today’s media watchers.

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