I once read an article in Christianity Today about how technological we have become, and how disconnected and uninvolved were are with much of what goes on around us. The article explained that in times long past, social life was centered around the hearth, and went on to point out that the Latin word for "hearth" is the same as the word for "focus". This gives a picture of life being all about the hearth and the warmth to be found there. It gives meaning to a phrase we've all heard before, "Keep the home fires burning." Picture, if you will, how labor intensive activities were that were necessary to keep the home fire burning - gathering wood or other fuel, cleaning out ashes, consciously remembering to to feed fuel into the fire so it wouldn't go out,etc., so you could keep warm and have food, since food was prepared and consumed at and around the hearth. Everyone contributed to the effort. Social life was focused around the hearth.
I am reminded of some close friends of mine who set their living room up with all the chairs facing a big wood stove on a large, raised corner hearth made of stone, rather than chairs facing the television at the other end of the room. It was always comforting to visit them because we knew that their focus would be entirely upon us and everyone gathered in that warm and cozy corner, rather than on an indifferent talking-head box at the other end of the room.
All of this makes me think how intentional all of life should be, from our most important spiritual decisions down to even the most mundane of our daily actions. Our thoughts and actions should be intentional from things as personal as acting on what we believe about God, to the time-consuming as effort of nurturing new relationships, and even down to the simplest things in life, such as making toast.
I used to collect old kitchen tools. I gave that up some years ago when it was becoming apparent that those same items that were considered "state of the art" when I was a child were coming into vogue as collectibles. It wasn't fun anymore when I realized I was beginning to be contemporary with much of what was hanging on my walls. I had visions of someday being stuffed and hung there, myself, among the old can openers and vegetable choppers, as a relic of the past. This may be a slight overstatement, but you get the picture.
I still have a special affinity for early, electric kitchen appliances. I am the owner of an "Armstrong Table Stove", a kind of early 1900s toaster oven that was supposed to do everything from poach eggs to grill steaks. The inventor must have had big city apartment dwellers in mind when inventing it. I also have an "Eskimo Kitchen Mechanic", sort of a cross between an electric milkshake maker, butter churn and an electric paint can stirrer. Those old appliances always make me smile to think strange (to us) devices must have been very innovative for their time. My favorite old kitchen appliances are those antique flap-door toasters. When I got rid of most of the old kitchen tools, I liked the toasters so much that I kept a few. I still have them and they still work!
When my husband and I got married, some 26 years ago now, we did not receive a single toaster as a wedding gift. That, in itself, was unusual, but as I was already using one of the antique toasters on a daily basis, we continued on with it. I was used to it, but my new husband wasn't. Making toast with a flap-door toaster was a very intentional process. You had to be involved in your food making, not like today where you just go through the drive-thru and get a burger, fries and a soda and don't even think about where they come from. Heck, we don't even have to ask for a burger, fries and soda anymore. Now we just ask for a meal by number.
Food preparation today is quick, easy and mindless. To make toast the old fashioned way you opened the doors on each side of the toaster, put a slice of bread in each opening and shut the doors again. But, you had to be alert. You had to be involved in the process because you had to intentionally check every thirty seconds or so to see if you were burning the toast. No button to dial to get the desired browning. No automatic eject button that popped the toast up when done, the opposite of toasters today where you put the bread in and it comes out automatically toasted to the right color and texture, and you don't have to worry that either the toast or the kitchen will catch on fire if you leave the room. It seems to me that must of the challenge of daily living has been lost. And what a loss it is!
My husband learned the hard way that you can't shave and make toast at the same time. He learned that if he went and shaved while making toast he ended up having to live with the results of his inattention. We never did burn the house down and, eventually, we sacrificed the old flap-door toaster for a more updated model that even toasts English muffins, but I still miss the old one some. I believe much has been lost as we have become less intentionally involved in the process of feeding ourselves. I do remember the major lesson learned from that old toaster.
What I learned from that toaster was this: every worthwhile thing in life comes from some intentional action or decision. In this modern, computerized, videoized, spectator-centered, social networking age, knowing this is more important than ever. Today, we are divorced and disconnected from much of what goes on around us. Television, video games, the internet - all of these are hypnotic and lock us, bodily and mentally, into some inactive, frozen state of paralysis where we are no longer participants in an active life, but are spectators. This shift in focus has crept into all facets of life, even to where we have become spectators in our own spiritual lives and in our own religious expression.
Over the years, I have seen a real shift in what goes on in many churches, which I suspect mirrors some people's private spiritual lives. We live in an age where we are entertained all day long. We are entertained by television around the clock. Most stations no longer go off the air at night. Video games have become our babysitters and a way for us to be violent and aggressive in seemingly acceptable ways. The internet has taken the place of face-to-face relationships. Now, I am not against these things. Television, computers and video games are not bad in and of themselves. What I am concerned about is how we have come to depend on these devices to entertain us with an endless stream of whatever it is they offer that stimulates our sensory organs in some endless, feel good massage. We are barraged with so much quantity that we no longer critically assess what we are taking in and have forgotten that these devices do have on-off switches and plugs that can be disconnected. We act as if it is beyond our control to control them. We forget we can turn them off. These devices are no longer just tools, but have often replaced meaningful, intentional actions and relationships. And we have come, in our times of religious expression and worship, to expect this same kind of stimulation. We expect to be entertained.
People are hungrier than ever, spiritually speaking. Most of them don't know what they are looking for. All they know is that there is an empty place deep inside, but they do not know know what's missing. They do know that things like television, video games and internet chatting makes them feel better, temporarily. But it wears off after a while and they they have to go back for another fix. I am the child of alcoholics. I understand this feeling. Of the symptoms of being an adult child of alcoholics is having the urge to shop. It's a mechanism to self-medicate, to alleviate pain. You go out and buy a bunch of stuff, most of which you don't need, because it temporarily sedates the pain of dealing with the pain of your childhood experience.
People who are spiritually hungry, but don't recognize it for what it is, act in a similar fashion. They go from church to church, from guru to guru, seminar to seminar, or switch from channel to channel, scanning religious television programming or, even worse, watching the same religious channel on television all day long without recognizing that many of the 30-minute, back-to-back programming segments are teaching conflicting theologies. They aren't listening. They just want to feel something; but, culture being what it is and because of how sensitized by it they have become, and having bought into being mindlessly entertained in lieu of intentional living, they aren't looking for spiritual truth. They are just looking for the next spiritual fix, so they can feel better. Being entertained temporarily cuts the pain of being disconnected and empty.
The dictionary defines the word "titillated" as being tickled, excited or pleasurably stimulated. That's what a lot of people expect from their church or religious experience today, to be "titillated". They want to feel good. They want music that makes them feel warm and fuzzy. They want a speaker who doesn't get too deep or says things that makes them uncomfortable. And it's a plus if the preacher can crack a joke or two. They don't want anything mentally challenging, and definitely nothing that requires involvement or a response on their part. The questions - Am I here to worship God today? What am I bringing to this gathering? What is my spiritual offering? - have been replaced by - What is the service going to do for me today? Am I going to be entertained? Am I going to be pleasurably stimulated and excited? If these are also the questions you are asking, you might as well stay home and sleep in. You don't have to go to church or some other spiritual gathering to get the same physical effect. You can have sex and get the same effect as that.
Your spiritual life is not about entertainment, and should not be approached with anything less than your total, focused intention and attention. Your relationship with God is not some virtual reality video game where you create your own entertaining reality. You can not lay in your spiritual recliner and just flip channels with the remote control until you find something about God that excites, tickles and stimulates you in a pleasurable way. God does not work that way. With God there is only one channel, and it is tuned into His unchanging Holiness and HIs intention is that we be brought into line with that. That's His will.
"Will" is the deepest desires of one's heart. It is God's will, His deepest, heart-felt desire, that we be in a vital and conscious relationship with Him. That is why He intentionally paid out the life of His Son. To fix things so we can have that relationship. What is your spiritual will? Is it your will to be brought into line with God's will? Is your spiritual life and expression intentional? Or are you mindlessly flipping channels, trying to find something that makes you feel good? Are you expecting to be titillated in every service and meeting? Are you looking for entertainment?
I can hear you asking, "Well, doesn't it just happen? I believe in God. I had this emotional altar call experience once. Wasn't that it?" The danger of this kind of thinking, where we think our emotional, born again experience is the goal, is that we go onto automatic pilot and believe that the beginning point of our Christian life is the finish line and, and there's nothing left except to be entertained because we have "arrived". As a consequence, we don't move on from there, developing and growing into spiritually mature individuals. Our growth becomes stunted because we are paralyzed and hypnotized. We stay children who want nothing more than to be titillated - tickled, excited and pleasurably stimulated.
What did Jesus say about all of this? Mark 8:34-35 in the Amplified version says it best,
"If anyone intends to come after me, let him deny himself
[forget, ignore, disown, and lose sight of himself and his
own interests] and take up his cross, and [joining Me as a
disciple and siding with My party] follow with Me [continually,
cleaving steadfastly to Me]. For whoever wants to save his
[higher, spiritual, eternal] life, will lose it [the lower,
natural, temporal life which is lived only on earth]; and
whoever gives up his life [which is lived only on earth] for
My sake and the Gospel's will save it [his higher, spiritual
life in the eternal kingdom of God].
Is this what you want instead of continuous, mindless entertainment? It can be yours. But it requires something from you. The key word in these verses I just quoted is the word "intends". The dictionary defines "intend" as:
1. to have in mind as a purpose, plan; 2. to mean something to
be used for, as destined or designated; 3. to signify. And older
meaning is "to bend, direct or turn: as they intend their thoughts.
It implies having in mind something to be done; a deliberate purpose
or design, suggesting careful planning in order to bring about
particular result and a determination to do a specified thing or
act in a specified manner, to an ultimate end or purpose."
Is your ultimate, end purpose to be entertained or to have a true, filled (with God) and fulfilled life based upon a relationship with your Creator? If all you want is to be tickled, excited or pleasurably stimulated with entertainment, just continue on with spiritual channel surfing or a spiritual life of uninvolved spectatorship. But be warned. There is a price. It is this: You will always be empty and looking for the next fix. You will never be filled and you will never be fulfilled.
If you want to grow into spiritual maturity, want to be filled and fulfilled and wish to not be on the sidelines as some spectator who has no power to do anything about anything in life but would rather be an active participant in your spiritual life, you need to have intention. This means you have to do something. You have to "turn or bend your thoughts" to a decision, as the dictionary defined it. And you have to be willing to carry it out. Every day. Jesus said to "take up your cross." This means having to turn off or unplug the wanting to be constantly titillated and entertained that is keeping you in a childish state of spiritual paralysis and you have to intentionally tune in to the only channel that God is broadcasting - Himself. It requires laying down the remote control, getting out of your spiritual recliner and going into the kitchen; and, just like my old flap-door toaster, it requires intentionally keeping your eye on the toast!
Copyright, S. Rolf-Tooley, 2002, 2010.
