The Bread of Life Sunday School class has four teachers, and several weeks ago Kenny Taggart was teaching the class. Kenny is a man of few words, but those few words are more often than not worthy of attention. That day, he was talking about the parable in Matthew’s Gospel in which Jesus tells of a sower who threw seed on all kinds of ground: rocky, dry, thorny, and eventually good ground. Kenny asked, “what are the thorns that choke out the good seed of God’s good news?” It is a great question, because I immediately knew my answer.
What is it, when you are living life in the awareness of God’s presence, with peace, with calm, free of anxiety and fear and stress (or lower stress and lower fear and lower anxiety?)…what is it that takes this away? What is it for you? I know what one of the things, maybe the biggest thing, is for me. My iPhone.
We all are addicted to something: food, alcohol, approval, drama, exercise…it could be most anything. And I fear that I am borderline addicted to my phone. I say borderline probably only to make me feel a little better. But my cell phone, it was created (and updated on a regular basis) in such a way to get me addicted to it. Addicted to unlocking and “checking.” Addicted to “scrolling.” And never once have I spent five minutes, ten minutes, on my phone and felt better when I put it down than when I picked it up. It shortens my attention span. It conditions me to always expect the next attention-grabbing “over the top” video or news story or meme or picture. And now, clearly, much of this is not true to reality, but is in fact fake in any number of different ways. I don’t like what it does to me. It is thorny. It chokes out the good life God intends for me.
So, I thought about going and getting a flip phone, live like it is 1995 all over again. But then I think, “what about music?” The music on my device is a really good thing. It is not thorny. And maps? How will I find a new place I need to go without Apple Maps? Maybe the flip phone of 1995 does not have everything I need. But then I realized, I have the ability to remove everything from my iPhone that is there choking out God’s seeds of peace, joy, contentment, etc. So I started deleting apps. Messenger—gone. Four of the five news apps—gone. Facebook—gone. Email—gone. I removed most everything except music, maps, one news app, my exercise app, and of course I didn’t remove my favorite sports app. It feels very simple, and it is less distracting.
I tell you this for a couple of reasons. First, I have realized that I am not as important as I like to think I am. I do not need to check my email every twenty minutes. I am not that important. I am okay checking my email only when I am at my computer. Sometimes that will be often through a workday, sometimes that will be once a day. Sometimes I may even miss a day. But I don’t live in the fantasy that I am so important that I need to be tied to email non-stop. That is for presidents and popes, I am neither. So, (here’s the second reason) it may take me a little longer to reply. The efficiency and immediateness that modern life has prized so dearly has not given to us as much as it has taken away. It has taken our ability to be with one another and pay attention to each other. It has taken calmness and a measured pace and replaced it with frenzy, with minds that are constantly churning for the next dopamine release.
I thank you for listening to my confession and my intention, and I ask you what Kenny asked us: what are the thorns that choke out the seed of God’s good news for you? It could be your phone. It could be something totally different. Whatever it is, do what is necessary to get away from the thorns. God has something better for you, for your life.