Everywhere I look people have their head down. Usually they're looking at their smart phone or sending a text message. Occasionally I'll see someone with their head up, but usually their phone is pressed up against it and they're yapping into the mouth piece. It seems we've lost the ability to be comfortable doing nothing. Anytime we have a free minute we are cramming our head with more information: surfing the web at a bus stop; checking Facebook as we wait for the waiter to bring our lunch; texting a friend while we walk to the post office. We always need some sort of digital stimulation. We are restless if our minds are free to wander.
But how are we to think, meditate, ponder, or process if we don't give our brains the time and space they need to do so? And more importantly, how are we to meditate on God's word, if we only give it ten minutes in the morning and then keep our minds delightfully distracted for the rest of the day? Sure, reading scripture is great, but if you leave it in your study instead of taking it out into the world, doesn't it lose some of it's effectiveness? Joshua 1:8 says "Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful." God's transforming power comes not just when we read His word, but when we consider it, mull it over, ponder it, and apply it. I confess that I am much too distracted. I spend my time with the Lord in the morning, and then forget about His word for the rest of the day as I fill my mind with all sorts of useless information. My desire is that I'd be a man who considers what I read. That I'd "delight in the law of the Lord, and on His law meditate day and night" (Psalm 1:2).
But how are we to think, meditate, ponder, or process if we don't give our brains the time and space they need to do so? And more importantly, how are we to meditate on God's word, if we only give it ten minutes in the morning and then keep our minds delightfully distracted for the rest of the day? Sure, reading scripture is great, but if you leave it in your study instead of taking it out into the world, doesn't it lose some of it's effectiveness? Joshua 1:8 says "Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful." God's transforming power comes not just when we read His word, but when we consider it, mull it over, ponder it, and apply it. I confess that I am much too distracted. I spend my time with the Lord in the morning, and then forget about His word for the rest of the day as I fill my mind with all sorts of useless information. My desire is that I'd be a man who considers what I read. That I'd "delight in the law of the Lord, and on His law meditate day and night" (Psalm 1:2).