4 Questions for Your Attention

So much information, so little time.

We’re saturated with information today. How do we take it all in? What do we do with it?

On the heels of our nation’s birthday, how does all this information affect what kind of citizens we will be? As believers, just what should be our attitude toward knowledge?

Attention, Knowledge, and Citizenship

Megan Garber of The Atlantic quotes Tim Wu, a law professor at Columbia Law School and the author of the book The Attention Merchants, as saying, “Frankly, citizenship in our time is about how you spend your attention.” 

The media landscape today vies for our attention, but much of it is pure distraction. Garber makes the point that we’re used to considering citizenship as an action – vote, rally, protest; that it is, but today, she writes, Wu reminds us that citizenship is more:

“Now, Wu suggests, there’s an even more basic requirement of good citizenship: to be strategic about the things on which we agree to expend that most precious of resources—our attention. Yes, protest; yes, make phone calls; yes, march; yes, of course, vote; that will be far less meaningful, however, unless it is undergirded by those even more foundational activities: learning. Looking. Seeing. Prioritizing. Distinguishing between that which is urgent, and that which is the opposite. Thinking, always—even when the “news” of the day is nonsense, and indeed especially when it is that—of what is truly worthy of being talked about and cared about. And what, given the severe limitations of the American attention span, is not.

Thinking, always, of what is truly worthy of being talked about and cared about and especially what is not.  A clear call for media literacy and digital citizenship, I’d say.

Is a posture of learning a posture of worship?

I ran across a meme that said, “A posture of learning is a posture of worship.” It certainly can be; the question is, What are we worshiping? What are we spending our time on?

How should we pursue knowledge?

John Milton spoke to this very conundrum in 1667 in Paradise Lost. The angel, Raphael, was sent to enlighten Adam “as friend with friend”:

“But Knowledge is as food, and needs no less

Her temperance over appetite to know

In measure what the mind may well contain,

Oppresses else with surfeit, and soon turns

Wisdom to folly, as nourishment to wind” (VII.125-130).

We have an appetite for knowledge just as we do for food. We must exercise “temperance over appetite” – considering how much to take in. If we sate ourselves with surfeit – that is, if we gorge with excess – wisdom will turn to folly just as nourishment results in nothing but “wind.”

Just what knowledge should we pursue? Milton writes that the angel Raphael will give Adam the knowledge that “best may serve to glorify the Maker” (VII.115-116).

So, about those 4 questions. Consider these.

How do we spend our attention?

Do we spend time thinking of what is truly worthy of being talked about and what is not?

Do we exercise temperance over our appetite for knowledge?

Do we concern ourselves with what best may glorify the Maker?

The Unity of A Life Hidden in Christ

In an era that requires living life out loud and online for all to see, how can we be hidden in Christ?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life Together speaks across the ages into our divided present, advocating the believer’s

            Oneness with Christ

            Unity with Fellow Believers

            Unity of the Life Hidden in Christ.

In this, the last of my posts on Bonhoeffer’s thoughts on unity, we’ll consider what it means to have the unity of a life hidden in Christ.

Hidden in Christ = Immersed in Jesus

It’s easy to see the content of our daily lives as separate from God, but Bonhoeffer reminds us that the “‘it world’ is only an instrument in the hand of God for the purification of Christians” (70). We are to live a seamless life, one that is immersed (or hidden) in Christ; that means that we bring our humanity into the spiritual community.

To bring our humanity into the spiritual community, we must consider what the spiritual means to the physical and vice versa. My nine-to-five, day-to-day existence – what does that mean for and to my spiritual life? Living that kind of seamless life means that I also have to consider how the time I spend behind stained glass or in the pages of scripture affects what I do and say each day.

When we are hidden in Christ, we live seamless, connected lives — lives that are immersed and surrounded by Christ’s work for us.

Shared sorrows and joys

Bonhoeffer warns that a “purely spiritual relationship is not only dangerous but also an altogether abnormal thing” (38). The concerns of everyday life must spill over onto the spiritual community, giving us the opportunity to minister and be ministered to.

Both joys and sorrows are part of life; Bonhoeffer writes that “the Bible can characterize the whole life of the Christian as bearing the Cross,” but we are not called to do this alone. “It is the fellowship of the Cross to bear the burden of the other” (101).

As fallen creatures, Bonhoeffer writes notes that we indulge in “wish dreams,” but as those are destroyed, disillusionment follows. Being in community helps us remember that we cannot live “by our own words and deeds, but only by that one Word or Deed which really binds us together—the forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ” (28).

Bonhoeffer’s advice to “speak to one another on the basis of the help we both need” helps bind us together, as we realize that we all face discouragement at some point.

Intrinsic Faith that Signals Redemption

Bonhoeffer’s little book reminds us that we are bound together as believers in Christ. In the midst of both joy and sorrow, those bonds link us to Christ, who suffered sorrow for our joy and for our salvation.

A life hidden in Christ reveals an intrinsic faith that recognizes the redemptive value of pain and tragedy and sees the unity of life. The Christian imagination can always see the hope of the better world coming, in spite of the fact that the journey begins “in dismay,” as C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity.

The unity of a life hidden in Christ is a unity

that brings humanity into the spiritual community,

that recognizes the dismay in beginnings but gestures toward hope.

How can believers show unity?

Unity will be visible today as we become those who:

are close to contemporary life and sensitive to reality;

see the way of discipleship and walk it to the end.

Understanding

the believer’s oneness with Christ,

the unity we share with fellow believers,

and the hiddenness of our life in Christ

moves us closer to this goal, helps us to signal grace to those around us.

Unity in a Divisive Age:  Unity with Fellow Believers

In this divisive age, even Christians find themselves at odds with each other.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s words in Life Together encourage and challenge believers to consider their unity in spite of differences. In Part 1 of this series, we considered the believer’s oneness with Christ. Today we’ll be challenged by Bonhoeffer’s thoughts on unity with fellow believers.

John W. Doberstein calls Bonhoeffer one who:

is close to contemporary life and sensitive to reality;

sees the way of discipleship and walks it to the end.

To be in unity with fellow believers, we must be as Bonhoeffer – aware of both contemporary life and reality, living and walking the way of the disciple.

The Believer’s Unity with Fellow Believers

We’re united with the believers around us and even around the world through our common belief in Jesus Christ. He died to gather us to him.

We are one with Christ, joined to him, but we create divisions when we place ourselves above others.

Bonhoeffer exhorts us to consider ourselves “the greatest of sinners” (96). This enables us to communicate effectively to one another, as we “speak to one another on the basis of the help we both need” (106).

We have a shared state with our fellow believers – we are saved not by our own efforts, but through the grace of God. This admission of our shared state not only levels the playing field but lends hope as we realize that, though fallen, we may “share in God’s grace and glory and be God’s child” (106).

As Christians in America, we assume so much, often taking for granted the believers around us, overlooking opportunities for local ministry.

We so easily take for granted the opportunity for Christian community in America. Bonhoeffer reminds us that it is “by the grace of God that a congregation is permitted to gather visibly in this world” (18).

In thankfulness for that grace, we are called to engage in its ministry among us.

Bonhoeffer reminds us of this ministry to one another as he writes that “the Christ in [a believer’s] heart is weaker than the Christ in the word of his brother” (23). As we speak his Word into each other’s lives, united by our need and by our ministry to one another, “through Christ, we have one another, wholly, and for all eternity” (26).

Our unity with fellow believers transcends time and place.

Bonhoeffer paints a thrilling picture of unity with fellow believers that transcends time and place. As we read scripture, “we become part of what once took place for our salvation” (53).

Bonhoeffer writes that we, in our modern lives, pass through the Red Sea and into the desert, falling into doubt, and are punished and repent. Through the reading of God’s Word, “we are torn out of our own existence and set down in the midst of the holy history of God on earth” (53).

We become one with the Body of Christ across the ages, singing an earthly song of “pilgrims and wayfarers upon whom the Word of God has dawned to light their way” (58).

Christ’s work for us links with the experience of believers from the pages of scripture and the believers we stand with today, teaching us about another unity – the unity of lives that are hidden in Christ.

If we’re thankful for a unity with fellow believers that is humble and necessary, that transcends time and place, our time is better spent looking for what unites us than what divides.

In an era that requires living life out loud and online for all to see, what merit can come from being hidden in Christ? We’ll consider Bonhoeffer’s thoughts on the unity of a life hidden in Christ in Part 3.

Food for Thought on Friday

What’s lingering in your mind as you look back on this week?

A few things caught in the queue here…

1. Celebration!

Thankfulness for a happily married life. We celebrated with a night out and plans for the future. There’s nothing better.

2. A return to writing – of a different type.

I’ve been doing academic writing for the last four years, in pursuit of my Ph.D. Now that I’ve passed, walked, and own the hat, I’m a bit free to do other types of writing, too. I’m enjoying stretching the writing muscle by writing in several different directions.

3. A return to reading for enjoyment.

For the last four years, my reading has been pretty much restricted to the degree. I have thoroughly enjoyed it, but I’ve missed having time to read for enjoyment. I’m getting caught up on the fiction I enjoy, finding new authors, and still pursuing academic reading that my degree has kindled.

4. A look toward the future.

As I write, I’m planning what I will research and pursue and submit and post. That’s all much on my mind these days.

5. Family blessings.

My thoughts linger on our family blessings and the anticipation of enjoying them this summer! We’ll be seeing family – including grands, of course.

Why not leave a comment? Let me know what lingering in your mind at the end of this week. I’m happy to be linking up with some bloggers I met years ago on Friday’s Fave Five. Click on over here if you’d like to join in the fun.

Digital Wellness, Applied Digitally

William Wan of The Washington Post  wrote last week, “In the modern economy of tablets and apps, our attention has become the most valuable commodity.”

We scroll, we click, we post, we like – and our behavior exemplifies what B.F. Skinner called “variable rewards.” We keep looking and liking and sometimes, we get what we’re seeking. (Slot machines come to mind…)

Looking for a remedy

Now that we’re finally becoming aware of our behavior and its potential drawbacks, Wan writes, “rebel developers” enter the picture:

“Increasingly, the rebel developers are using fire to fight fire – creating apps that try to put users back in control. They call their movement ‘digital wellness,’ and in recent weeks, they scored two huge victories when Google and Apple announced plans to incorporate some aspects of digital-wellness apps – like allowing users to track their screen time –into upcoming Android and iPhone operating systems.”

Are we Narcissus?

Marshall McLuhan’s book, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, published in 1964, discussed this control issue by comparing us to Narcissus of Greek mythology. A young man of extraordinary beauty, Narcissus one day bent to drink from a pool and saw his own reflection. He immediately fell in love with the image. In some versions of the story, Narcissus tries to embrace his reflection, falls in, and drowns; in another, unable to tear himself away from his reflection, he simply wastes away and dies. Clearly, Narcissus’s obsession with his image led to his death.

Numbed by extensions, we auto-amputate.

Fascinated with the extension of himself, the image, Narcissus became numb to other perceptions and effects. He offloads, or in McLuhan’s terminology, auto-amputates, his feelings and sensations to the image. McLuhan’s contention is that we do the same with technology.

We’ve always used tools, and technology is nothing new. We use a tool such as a pen or pencil to write down a list, offloading the need for memory. Later, as smartphones offer their amazing abilities to us, we further offload by inputting our contacts into their memory.

When I read the headline “Rebel Developers Are Trying to Cure Our Smartphone Addiction – With An App,” I immediately asked what is wrong with this picture.

As we enable our smartphones to regulate our smartphone addiction, I wonder how much more numb we can possibly get.

Unity in a Divisive Age: Oneness with Christ

In a divisive age, dare we speak of unity?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s words encourage me, especially today. His writings have strengthened believers over the centuries and stand ready to speak to our time.

John W. Doberstein introduces Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s small but weighty tome, Life Together, by calling him “a writer of profound theological and Biblical insight and yet close to contemporary life and sensitive to reality, a witness who saw the way of discipleship and walked it to the end.”

It seems to me that this is what’s needed today. One who:

is close to contemporary life and sensitive to reality;

sees the way of discipleship and walks it to the end.

A look at Bonhoeffer’s writings on unity can edge us closer to those around us and prompt us toward discipleship that will speak loudly.

In Bonhoeffer’s Life Together, he examines three aspects of the believer’s unity —

• the believer’s oneness with Christ,
• the believer’s unity with fellow believers, and
• the unity of the life hidden in Christ.

Welcome to a three-part series examining these three aspects of the believer’s unity.

The Believer’s Oneness with Christ

Our unity with fellow believers is the easiest of these aspects to see. Clearly, we are united with the believers around us and even around the world – but this is only because of our common belief in Jesus Christ.

It is foundational to our faith that we are one with Christ — joined to him.

Bonhoeffer reminds readers of John’s words that Christ died to gather us together in him (John 11:52). Until then, Bonhoeffer writes, “God’s people remain scattered, held together solely in Jesus Christ, having become one in the fact that, dispersed among unbelievers, they remember Him in the far countries” (28). This oneness with Christ is so foundational that Bonhoeffer writes that “we belong to one another only through and in Jesus Christ” (21); “Jesus Christ alone is our unity” (39).

Just as all of us were created with a body, so “the Son of God appeared on earth in the body, in the sacrament the believer receives the Lord Christ in the body, and the resurrection of the dead will bring about the perfected fellowship of God’s spiritual-physical creatures” (20). We have oneness with Christ now and for eternity.

As Christ came to earth, Bonhoeffer writes, he took on our nature along side his own. “Where he is, there we are too, in the incarnation, on the Cross, and in his resurrection. We belong to him because we are in him. That is why the Scriptures call us the Body of Christ” (24). His death and resurrection open the door to fellowship with him. Our oneness in Christ is clear in our need of him.

Our oneness with Christ is seen in our need.

Our oneness with Christ is perhaps most clearly expressed in our need for salvation and deliverance that is found in Christ alone. Bonhoeffer makes clear that, as creatures who are one with Christ, we live not by our own claims and justifications, “but by God’s claims and God’s justification,” by God’s Word pronounced upon [us], whether that Word declares [us] guilty or innocent” (22).

Even though we would like to think that our lives are determined by our own resources, this is not the case. The Christian “finds both [death and life] only in the Word that comes to him from the outside, in God’s Word to him” (22).

Bonhoeffer puts it most aptly as he writes, “Help must come from the outside, and it has come and comes daily and anew in the Word of Jesus Christ, bringing redemption, righteousness, innocence, and blessedness” (22).

Our need for Christ unifies us with him; we live only through him when he is our peace, our mediator.

Our oneness with Christ opens not only the way to God, but the way to our brother and sister.

This oneness with Christ leads us to our oneness with fellow believers.

It is only through Christ that we come to others, for “the way is blocked by our own ego” and is only opened up through Christ (23). Once we acknowledge this ego and surrender it through life with Christ, we can embark upon his work.

Once we recognize that our work is God’s work, a part of the life God has given us, we are able to “allow ourselves to be interrupted by God” (99). We are to be as humble as He, with “hands not too good for deeds of love and mercy” (100), mirroring the One who humbled himself for us.

Christ alone is our unity, our work is given by him, and through Christ, we stand ready with humble hearts to be one with fellow believers.

Unity will be visible today as we become those who:

are close to contemporary life and sensitive to reality;

see the way of discipleship and walk it to the end.

Understanding the believer’s oneness with Christ moves us closer to this goal, helps us to signal grace to those around us.

Stay tuned as, in parts two and three of this series, we examine Bonhoeffer’s thoughts on the believer’s unity with fellow believers and the unity of the life hidden in Christ.

Engaging a Changing Culture with an Unchanging Message

It appears that Christians have lost what Ed Stetzer refers to as “the Christian’s home court advantage.”

In Stetzer’s post entitled “How We Lead in Times of Cultural Shift,” he names the Christian’s next challenge as a challenge of leadership.

How then shall we lead?

As our culture shifts, how are Christians to lead? Stetzer’s first suggestion is that Christians “stop fighting for the perception of cultural dominance that gives the appearance of success without the substance of Christian practice.”

Can we give up our perception of cultural dominance that gives the appearance of success?

Can we embrace the substance of Christian practice?

We can find a model for both in the New Testament, where Christian cultural dominance is unheard of and Christian practice abounds.

A shift in thinking

Stetzer writes that to accomplish these two things, “Christian leaders need to shift their thinking toward missional and evangelistic ends.”

We must rethink:

Our language. Stetzer’s advice is for Christian leaders to “become bilingual, demonstrating fluency in both the public sphere of secularism and the message of the Gospel of Jesus….speak[ing] prophetically from the margins, remaining faithful to Christian theology and practice while effectively translating the Gospel to the world around us.”

Our approach to American culture. Stetzer’s post details three approaches to culture: culture defenders, culture creators, and culture engagers. All three have a role, but I would agree with Stetzer that culture engagers will matter most.

These are leaders who “interpret culture as a missionary, prophetically speak into the public sphere, and testify to the gospel of Jesus as the true satisfaction for the deepest desires of the human heart.”

Signaling grace

These leaders, I propose, are signaling grace. As they interpret culture, they’re identifying the points at which daily life resonates with the Gospel.

They understand not only what is now but what is within; they speak both into and beyond these, to what will be.

May we be such leaders, engaging a changing culture, signaling grace that’s at the heart of the unchanging message.

The Natural World: In Praise of the Creator

Hounded by headlines and deadlines, consumed with meetings and memos, plagued by the issues of the day…what is one to do?

I say, take a walk.

Pull up a chair on the front porch.

And let the Creator apply the balm of nature.

“The natural world can offer us more than the means to survive, on the one hand, or mortal risks to be avoided, on the other; it can offer us joy” (Michael McCarthy).

Nature is not our god. 

Nature is certainly not our god, but the Author of nature is, and He provides the gift of nature to lead us to joy.

Although McCarthy’s views and mine differ on several fronts, I can certainly endorse his poetic enthusiasm toward the joyful nature of creation:

“Referring to it as joy may not facilitate its immediate comprehension either, not least because joy is not a concept, nor indeed a word, that we are entirely comfortable with, in the present age. The idea seems out of step with a time whose characteristic notes are mordant and mocking, and whose preferred emotion is irony. Joy hints at an unrestrained enthusiasm which may be thought uncool… It reeks of the Romantic movement. Yet it is there. Being unfashionable has no effect on its existence… What it denotes is a happiness with an overtone of something more…”

Something more…

McCarthy concludes that this “something more” is an, elevated, spiritual quality; indeed it is, and this very quality emanates from the Creator. Nature is God’s content, says C.S. Lewis:

Many people – I am one myself – would never, but for what nature does to us, have had any content to put into the words we must use in confessing our faith. Nature never taught me that there exists a God of glory and of infinite majesty. I had to learn that in other ways. But nature gave the word glory a meaning for me. I still do not know where else I could have found one. I do not see how the “fear” of God could have ever meant to me anything but the lowest prudential efforts to be safe, if I had never seen certain ominous ravines and unapproachable crags. And if nature had never awakened certain longings in me, huge areas of what I can now mean by the “love” of God would never, so far as I can see, have existed.

Lewis goes on to explain that once “we have seen an image of glory,” we must go beyond to an “increasing knowledge of God”:

Nature cannot satisfy the desires she arouses nor answer theological questions nor sanctify us. Our real journey to God involves constantly turning our backs on her; passing from the dawn-lit fields into some poky little church, or (it might be) going to work. in an East End parish. But the love of her has been a valuable and, for some people, an indispensable initiation.

So, take a walk.

Pull up a chair on the front porch.

And let the Creator apply the balm of nature that can lead us to joy.

Who’s at the wheel?

James Williams’s Sunday essay in The Guardian a few weeks ago begins with an apt metaphor.

“Imagine that you’ve just bought a new GPS device for your car. The first time you use it, it works as expected. However, on the second journey, it takes you to an address a few blocks away from where you had wanted to go. On the third trip, you’re shocked when you find yourself miles away from your intended destination, which is now on the opposite side of town. Frustrated, you decide to return home, but when you enter your address, the GPS gives you a route that would have you driving for hours and ending up in a totally different city.

Like any reasonable person, you would consider this GPS faulty and return it to the store – if not throw it out of your car window. Who would continue to put up with a GPS that they knew would take them somewhere other than where they wanted to go? What reason could anyone possibly have for continuing to tolerate such a thing?

No one would put up with this sort of distraction from a technology that directs them through physical space. Yet…”

Yet that’s what we do each day when we open what Williams calls our “attentional GPSs – those technologies that direct our thoughts, our actions, our lives.” Williams contends – and I heartily agree – that technology should be helping us pursue “real goals, human goals.”

Unfortunately, though…

Unfortunately, though, technology awards our “impulsive selves,” our “lesser selves.” Our hope is that these tools will become “companion systems for our lives,” but as Williams explains, our goals have not been the goals of the technological system. The lingo is telling here; what do we call images today? Screen grabs. Captures. Williams contends that this technological system produces “weak-willed and impulsive” individuals.

What if we want technology to be more?

What if we want technology to be more? Williams contends that our challenge is one of self-regulation. The proliferation of devices and apps in our culture today puts us in a constant state of learning and adaptation,” never so fully in control that [we] can prevent these technologies from operating on [us] in unintended or undesirable ways.”

So, if technology is an “attentional adversary” that complicates the process of reaching our goals, how do we navigate those waters?

We navigate those waters by paying attention.

We can only navigate technological rapids today by truly paying attention. By finding, as Williams writes, “new ways of talking and thinking about the problem, as well as summoning the courage necessary for advancing on it inconvenient and unpopular ways.”

The courage to advance on the problem in inconvenient and unpopular ways.

May I suggest a liturgy that can bolster your resolve? Take a look at A Liturgy Before Consuming Media from Every Moment Holy by Douglas Kaine McKelvey.

Consider these thoughts before reading, watching, posting, tweeting.

McKelvey asks in his liturgy

that God be “present in my mind and action in my imagination”…

that God would “use human expressions of celebration and longing as catalysts to draw my mind toward ever deeper insight”…

and that God would grant wisdom and discernment that “make me a more empathetic Christ-bearer.”

A wise liturgy, indeed, that helps focus our attention and hand off the wheel to the One who knows and loves us best, who can direct us toward real goals.

A Grateful Family Heart

Ever wish your family showed a little more gratitude?

You can nurture thankfulness in your family! Why wait until Thanksgiving?

Here are few ideas to get your family in the mood for gratitude:

• Grab a notebook or a journal and label it the Family Gratitude Journal. Leave it on the kitchen table and      encourage everyone to join in the thankfulness.

To get started, choose a family time (a family meal, a special dessert) to kick off the journal. Be sure everyone knows the journal is for all of you – it’s a picture of your gratefulness as a family.  Here are some ideas to get you going:

Use the alphabet as a starter. Put at the top of a page “I’m thankful for… “ and write an A on one line.  Skip a few lines and write a B and so on.

Label another page “Pictures of gratitude.” Tape in a picture of something you’re grateful for and encourage the rest of the family to follow suit.

Start another page with the phrase “Gratitude from my childhood.” Encourage family members to add memories they’re thankful for.

• Here’s another way to accelerate your family’s gratitude. Talk about two or three people or families that you’re grateful for. Choose a couple and write a thank you note from all of you.

These could be relatives, neighbors, another family that has helped yours or have just been good friends, a youth leader or teacher, even a Sunday School teacher from way back. Talk about what you’re thankful for as a family and why – you’ll be surprised what surfaces.

Get pen and paper, buy a card, get on the computer, and write a thank you note. Put it in the mail. There’s nothing like holding good wishes from the heart in your hand.

• Another way to highlight thankfulness? Just say “Thank you” more often – it can be contagious.

Thank each other – even for things you have to do, things you always do. (My sons know they have to take out the trash, but I still thank them for doing it!) Maybe you’ve been taking those things (and those people) for granted, so that’s even more reason to say thanks. Saying “Thank you” is just another way of signaling grace — confessing that we’re not responsible for all we possess and enjoy and gesturing toward One who is greater.

Why do we give thanks?

It’s part of living in Christ.

Colossians 2:6,7 tells us ”So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”

So, live in Him and let Him live through you as a family. Signal grace to those around you.

Show your grateful family heart.