Disconnect

I just bought movie tickets online. In fact, I buy a lot of products online. I love shopping online. For introverts like me, the internet has been a wonderful invention. I can stay at home and do much of my shopping without ever having to interact with real people. I prefer emails to dealing with businesses over the phone. I would rather check out a website for information than call someone. I would often rather text a person rather than speak to them.

My point is this. With all the wonderful technology available to us that's designed to keep us in touch with one another, we've become disconnected with each other. We never speak. We never interact. It's like all the technology that was invented to make work easier that really just created more work, the irony of technology.

We don't understand what community is. We don't understand what intimacy is. We don't even know how to carry on an intelligent conversation. It's like achievement tests in school. They were designed to test students' knowledge of basic concepts, but education has declined.

When I read the book of Acts, I get discouraged at the state of things in the church today. I think we don't love one another very much. I think we don't understand what it means to be the Body of Christ.

Perhaps we could learn from the generations before us. Many of the older people in our church talk to one another. They talk for long periods of time. I know this because they will talk to me. You can't get some older people to stop talking. Perhaps this isn't a flaw. Perhaps it's not senility. Perhaps they really do like to talk to people and simply have a conversation. Maybe it doesn't have to be about anything. Maybe simply talking is enough.

I usually don't speak unless I have something to say. This drive my wife crazy. When she asks me about my day, she really wants to hear about it, even if it's boring. Maybe the importance of the conversation isn't the point. Maybe the conversation is the point. I've always felt like the destination is the only important thing in a trip. Perhaps the journey is equally important.