A MOMENT’S SILENCE
I was travelling on a train recently and was intrigued by the person sat next to me. There was no possibility of a conversation, he had ear pieces in and was listening to some music. But at the same time, he was also texting and then looking at his emails. And if that was not enough he was also playing a game on another hand-held piece of equipment. Talk about multi-tasking – he was doing at least three things. But I wonder if he was thinking?
I watched some news coverage of the Remembrance Day events and noticed several people in the crowds texting or looking at their mobiles – even in the two minute silence. I wonder whether they were thinking as well?
There is a phenomenon called “continuous partial attention”. It is a sad and dangerous thing. David Hunter, an American Christian writer, has written about this phenomenon. He says, “The very nature of modern life is its fragmentation and segmentation into multiple constellations of experience, knowledge, and relationships with each constellation grounded in a specific social and institutional realm of a person’s life. Under such conditions, we experience a fragmentation of consciousness – “continuous partial attention”.” So life becomes full of interruption and distraction. If it is not tweets or calls on the mobile, it’s emails and texts. And sometimes while these are all going on we try to drive, or talk to someone, or do something else. Nothing gets our full attention. I have heard of young people watching TV, while listening to music and texting. We are constantly engaging with a number of different sources of information at the same time.
What this means, of course, is that not many people take time to be silent, to think and consider, and to evaluate all that they are seeing and hearing. “Continuous partial attention” means that people often don’t really listen to anything. People think but they do not meditate and contemplate the great things they may be seeing or hearing. The dominance of technology, which means people must have all these gadgets in their hands, pushes out the importance of deep thought. Albert Mohler, a leading theologian and social commentator, suggests that slowly people are losing their capacity to think really deeply. That sort of thinking is not so much about intellectual capacity as about taking time to be quiet and to allow the mind to reflect on one issue.
I was rather horrified to hear from a Pastor friend recently that he has members of his congregation texting and tweeting during his services – and it is not just young people. He was concerned that perhaps he was becoming boring in his preaching and wondered if he should do things differently. But when he tried a different approach it had no impact – the tweeting and texting continued. I think a more direct approach might not have been out of order!
The problem is that a way of life is developing that may result in people not only stopping listening properly but also people may stop thinking in any depth. Superficial thought will never respond to the Word of God properly.
Many Christians would hold to the Bible’s teachings with strong conviction, but how many people live them out effectively? We all must hang our heads in shame. But why is that? We believe them and delight to share them with others. The problem is simply solved. We do not sufficiently engage our minds. We know the facts and the truths but we do not really understand them. We have not meditated upon them until they have become the very fabric of our essential way of thinking. We do not develop intellectual discernment. So our reactions are dictated by our circumstances, our emotions and our traditions. By tradition here I mean the way we have always done things – or the way we now follow someone else’s way of doing things. Too often these are not entirely Christian. We have not thought deeply enough so that our understanding of truth directs our emotions, evaluates our circumstances and refines our traditions.
Our lives are full and our minds are bombarded by a host of information. How will we respond to this? Will we adopt the way of the culture around us – “continuous partial attention”? Or will we stop and take time to think?
I once asked a godly man how I might cultivate a sense of God’s presence in my life. He gave me two things to do – and I regret I have not been faithful in pursuing either. Firstly he told me to give myself to godliness and holiness in all my activities of life. Secondly he said, “Be quiet and think deeply about one truth of God each day.”
The Lord once commanded, “Be still and know”. It is a truth that our culture has forgotten. How we all need to be silent and think. It will benefit us in so many ways: In prayer and holy living, in being able to listen when others speak and above all else in enabling us to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Roger Hitchings 20/11/10