Missed the main course....

 

 

I get up in the morning and my mind is buzzing. Pump to be switched on (water comes only for an hour), clothes to be washed, coffee to be made, the morning ablutions to be completed, bed to be made etc before I sit down for a my set aside quiet time. 

But then the WhatsApp is waiting  - the muted beeps have been beckoning me for some time – the multiple personal and group messages, though many archived, waiting to be read acknowledged and replied to. What will WhatsApp app feel if I ignore it and of course my friends too! Now that they know how to check if I have read it – I do not want them to think that I ignore them. 

But since I opened the WhatsApp, might as well go to Instagram and see who has responded to my pictures and ‘smart comments’! And the blog I had put up – has it been seen, in my WhatsApp status and Instagram. I might as well check it while I am on my mobile. 

I also need to know what are things I have for today in my calendar. Since calendar is open might as well check if there are some mails which I should see and acknowledge or respond.

And then the summary of today’s news is upon the Edge platform, but that can wait till I finish my set aside quiet time, but by now, it is almost time to get ready for the day to start and so the days rolls out…

This is from a semi-retired me. I wonder if I was still working full time what would it have been….

Tim Challis in his book “The Next Story” writes 

“The beep is undiscerning and thoughtless. It calls us out of sleep and reverie, out of church and school; it demands our attention as we stand vigil at the deathbed of a loved one. Every beep exacts a cost, whether the cost is simply the brief moment of distraction as our attention turns to the source of the noise, or the necessity of running from imminent danger. These beeps fill our lives. Often, they run our lives.”

“Distraction is not a static obstacle that you avoid like you might avoid a rock in the road. Distraction seeks you out.”

And he goes on to call the iPhone and other phones as a malfunction devise – too brutal for my liking! 

“The purpose of a multifunction device like the iPhone, providing a world of functions and applications, is to stop its owner whenever and wherever he is in order to pull him from one thing to the next. As soon as he takes a call, it provides him with a reminder from his calendar; and when he responds to that reminder, he receives an e-mail; and when he replies to the e-mail, he receives a text message. And so it goes, from one distraction to the next. This is exactly what the iPhone is meant to do. And it does it well.”

And he concludes “We sought to conquer time and space to exercise dominion, to control the creation for our own benefit. Somewhere along the way the tables have been turned. We are now the ones being controlled. It’s no wonder, then, that we are so distracted. We are slaves to our own inventions.”

Whereas the Master whom we follow, He stopped; he watched; he reflected, he healed, and he taught. If He was here today, would He have WhatsApp, Instagram, Email and a distraction device? 

And when He saw Martha running around with multiple well-meaning things in her mind said

“Martha, dear Martha, you’re fussing far too much and getting yourself worked up over nothing. One thing only is essential, and Mary has chosen it—it’s the main course, and won’t be taken from her.”

 

I hope I will not miss the main course….

And here am I sharing from my "malfunction and distraction device"....