July / August 2010 Pastor's Highlander Column

JULY / AUGUST 2010
PASTOR'S COLUMN

Brothers and sisters,

Most of us have probably heard the old adage “Physician, Heal thyself!”

Well, that is indeed the way it works sometimes, and such moments of profound (and sometimes painful) self-awareness are frequently accompanied by now widely recognized head-knocking gesture that says, “Wow, I could have had a V-8”.

Back in May I addressed the Fourth Commandment’s call upon us to observe the Sabbath, and as I did I shared the story of the young lumberjack with the dulled axe blade who is challenged with the question, “When’s the last time you sharpened your axe?”

In the interest of self-disclosure, let me report that I had one of those “V-8 moments” two weeks ago when I attended a week’s worth of classes at Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge. I realized for the first time in quite awhile that we all need such moments of Sabbath, of down-time and of withdrawal from the general “busyness” of life.

For a week I was forced to pretty much detach from the over-scheduling in which so many of us engage, from cell-phone calls, text-messaging, e-mails, Facebook, the internet, meetings, television and newspapers. It was liberating, exhilarating and somewhat overwhelming all at the same time. I realized suddenly how dull my axe had become and how quick I’ve become at responding and reacting to 18 to 20 hour a day information overload.

And after reflecting on this opportunity to “disconnect” and really start to pray deeply and process again, I found it fascinating to watch a piece on cable news several days ago about a new book by Nicholas Carr called The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains that addressed exactly the place I was finding myself.

Carr talks extensively about the current “wired” phenomenon in which so many of us have become engaged. And his contention is that we’ve been so glutted by information that studies now show that the majority of Europeans and North Americans now have about a 14 second attention span. We see “the new thing”, we react to it very quickly and superficially on Facebook or Twitter using our cell-phones, and then we’re on to the next “new, new thing”.

In short we, as a people and nation, are suffering from cultural Attention Deficit Disorder.

So, do we all really need to have that Sabbath to re-connect with God, ourselves and the world around us? Let’s all, grandparents, parents and kids, ask ourselves some of the following questions:

• How many hours do we and our children spend on-line?

• How many hours of TV are we all watching?

• How many separate schedule items do we, as individuals and families, manage to cram into each day?

• How many phone calls a day do we and our children make and receive?

• How often do each of us receive text-messages on cell phones, and are we receiving or sending them at inappropriate times like when we should be paying attention to the friends and family with whom we’re sitting down to eat?

• Are we thinking about what’s going on around us, or are we just reacting?

In my week of “forced disconnect”, I spent a lot of time in study and prayer that forced me to look at myself in more realistic ways. And as I was thinking through these and many other issues I was in daily contact with a classmate, Bishop Jwan Zhumbes, head of a 69 church diocese in the Anglican Church of Nigeria.

Bishop Jwan’s diocese is out in the bush country, it’s about the size of the Slippery Rock - Moniteau area. Many of his people struggle through the day just to find day-work, food and the other necessities of life, and yet they are filled with great faith and their churches are growing at rates not seen in this country in more than 100 years. He said to me, “Rusty, consider this: in 1900, there were 7 million Anglican Christians in all of Africa. Now there are 77 million and that’s just Anglicans, that doesn’t count all the other kinds of Christians.”

Between this idea of Sabbath, of disconnecting from the world to be in touch with Christ our Lord and deep prayer about who I am, and who we are as American Christians, God smacked me upside the head and I was reminded of an old prayer that I had first seen when I was in high school. It was painted on the chapel wall at the Aspinwall V.A. Hospital, and says this:

A CONFEDERATE SOLDIER'S PRAYER:
I asked God for strength, that I might achieve,
I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey.
I asked God for health, that I might do greater things,
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.
I asked for riches, that I might be happy,
I was given poverty, that I might be wise.
I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men,
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.
I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life,
I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing that I asked for — but everything I had hoped for.
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am among men, most richly blessed.

“Physician, Heal thyself!” Those words ring back to me. For a week, God disconnected me from a lot of things I’d begun to treat as essential, and made me realize afresh that what is essential is my full heart in His capable and loving hands so that I can be molded more in the image of my King.

“I got nothing that I asked for — but everything I had hoped for. Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered. I am among men, most richly blessed.”
Let’s all think about Nicholas Carr’s warning. Let’s make Summer 2010 the Sabbath we take from the world around us so that we can get “wired in” with Christ Jesus our Lord and be strengthened and renewed. See you in worship on the Lord’s Day!

Grace & Peace,
Pastor Rusty+