Confession: I’m really bad at being bored. Traffic jams, my morning commute on the train, a long check-out line at the grocery story—waiting for more than a minute or so makes me antsy, as I think about all the other things I could be doing. So I pull out my phone, catch up on the news, text my friend, make a Christmas list, watch a YouTube video. Anything that keeps me from getting restless.
I’m not alone in this feeling. In the October issue of our print magazine, Pamela Hill Nettleton writes about the pull of technology in our daily lives. Yes, she says, we feel productive and connected to others when we’re texting, emailing, and multitasking. But in the end, “we are so interested in where we aren’t that we may miss where we are.”
That’s the downside of all the distractions—digital or otherwise. We forget to be present in the moment and pay attention to what’s going on around us. This affects how we learn in the classroom, how we work, how we interact with others, but it also affects our spirituality. As Nettleton says, “A wandering mind is an exploring mind, a mind in search of deeper meaning and satisfaction in life.”
It’s easy to blame everything on technology. But this isn’t exactly a new problem. Even the writers of the Bible felt the need to remind people that sometimes we can’t find God in the busyness of everyday life. We need to make the commitment to stop, be silent, and sometimes physically leave our everyday setting to find God in that still small voice in the wilderness.
Elijah
In 1 Kings 19, God tells the prophet Elijah to go up on a mountain—because it is there that “the Lord is about to pass by.” So Elijah, like any good prophet, obeys and goes up into a cave to wait for God to appear. Shortly after he gets up there, there is a huge windstorm. The wind is so strong that “it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces.” “This must be where I can find God,” Elijah thinks to himself. But God is not in the wind.
Next comes an earthquake. And again, Elijah thinks to himself, “Surely God is in the earthquake.” But the Lord is not there either. And then there comes a fire, but God is not there either. After the fire, comes a perfect silence. When Elijah hears this silence, he goes to the entrance of the cave. And it is here that God speaks to him.
In the story, God is not found in the natural disasters. God is not found in the awe-inspiring and fearful wonder. It is in the silence—when most people would turn away, read a book, play a game, or go home—that God is found. It is because Elijah is not afraid to confront this silence that he is able to meet God face-to-face.
It is easy to get distracted by flashy displays of power. Natural disasters and the wonder of technology are both miracles in their own way. And both illustrate the power of God. They can even serve to prepare us to meet God. But in the end, like Elijah, we can’t be afraid of turning away when the noise dies down. Because we’re not going to meet God in the online communities or the apps. Instead, God is found in the silence of our own hearts.
Jesus
Jesus, too, understands the importance of being able to quiet his mind. Throughout his ministry, when things got overwhelming, he would go away from the crowds that were constantly following him in order to pray. The most memorable story is in Matthew 4, when Jesus went into the desert for 40 days and was tempted by the devil. Even Christ had to go into the wilderness and escape from all distractions to figure out who he was and how he could face the trials he had ahead.
Throughout Jesus’ ministry, he continues this tradition. After John the Baptist—his friend and cousin—gets murdered, Jesus asks his disciples to “come away to a deserted place” (Mark 6:31). In Luke, the as the crowds get greater, Jesus again retires in the wilderness to recoup his strength and pray (Luke 4:42, 5:16).
And, right before Christ’s crucifixion, when he arguably needs more strength than he ever has before, he again goes away from his friends and disciples to be with God in the garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36–46).
It’s not always easy to find God, despite our best intentions. Even Jesus, God’s son, had to purposefully remove himself from his everyday life in order to communicate with his Father. Like Jesus, sometimes we need to make the leap to turn off all the distractions. That doesn’t always have to mean going into the wilderness, or even taking a 40-day-long technology fast. It can be as simple as turning off your phone for 10 minutes to pray or meditate.
“Be still and know I am God,’ Psalm 46:10 commands us. It is so easy to blame our short attention spans on cell phones, social media, or Netflix. But distractions are as old as humanity. The answer isn’t to deplore the state of modern society or to return to some “simpler” time. Instead of fighting against technology, we need to realize that people have been struggling with the same issues since time immemorial. Perhaps something as old as the Bible holds at least some of the answers.
