I enjoy reading both online and offline. Subjects include advertising, small groups, Abraham Lincoln, fairy tales, “cool,” Old Testament history, augmented reality, furniture restoration and the contrasting perspectives of the NY Times and Fox News on President Obama. Can you say “variety”?
In the past week, however, I’ve encountered a concentration of articles on busyness. Is it because people are catching cabin fever and need some vacation? (The snow hasn’t let me see any more than the driver’s side window of my neighbor’s car in two whole weeks. I’m beginning to think there’s an igloo with a glass peephole across the street.) Or is it because Lent started on Wednesday and my ears are attuned to it?
Either way, I welcome the concentration. We all know how fast our culture moves. If we aren’t keeping up with work demands, we’re keeping up with the Joneses. If it isn’t our kids’ extra-curricular schedules, it’s the digitally social and informational equivalent of Niagara Falls (something we’re either going to drown in or escape by the skin of our teeth).
Simplicity
One of my favorite quotes on this issue comes from Ann Hagmann in a great little book called Climbing the Sycamore Tree: A Study on Choice and Simplicity. She writes, “Simplicity is an act of the will to reduce the fracturedness of life by centering life around a singleness of purpose.” Sounds like Matthew 6:33 to me.
Lent is a perfect time for this sort of reduction. Alissa Wilkinson, editor of IAM’s The Curator, wrote an encouraging post on Lent at the CCO’s Living Jubilee last week where she reminds us:
The idea behind the Lenten fast is to remove something good that nonetheless can take Christ’s place in our life as the true source of comfort and joy. We add it back on celebratory days (the Sabbath, and then Easter), with the goal of finding comfort in Christ while being able to put his blessings in the proper place in our lives.
Whether we remove a good or a bad – chocolate or chasing the Joneses – we have to do it. And Lent provides both the space and communal support we need.
Multi-tasking and Disordered Priorities
My attention is so fractured (e.g. reading list above) that I’ve come to believe I can merely develop the skill of multi-tasking to deal with it. High Calling Blogger Charity Singleton reflected on this recently, sharing her own failures as a self-proclaimed multi-tasker and questioning whether she’s really succeeding. According to research she cited, the mind simply can’t multi-task. Or if it can, it “impairs one’s cognitive ability similarly to drunkenness.” My wife can attest to this in me! Milk in the cabinet, cereal in the fridge, forgotten conversations only minutes after having them….
These are harmless examples, of course, but they indicate a preoccupation that inhibits normal functioning. They say, “Sam, you’re not fully present; not paying attention; not living simply.”
And what about disordered priorities? Should children be in three sports? Do you need five social media outlets? Why am I waking up tired every morning? I want a whole six weeks of that feeling you get when an anxiety-producing appointment is unexpectedly canceled.
I can’t foresee such a Lenten season this year. I have too many idols and I’m still convinced that honing my “multi-tasking” skills can create adequate margins. Quitting TV will have to do for now. It will take a couple of weeks to get used to it, but I’ll get used to it. I just need to make sure I don’t fill my new free time with something else.
- How are/aren’t you observing Lent this year?
- What typically keeps you from reducing the fracturedness of life?
- Rhetorical question: What one thing would you fast from during Lent that you know you couldn’t fast from?
Post written by Sam Van Eman of New Breed of Advertisers. Photo in the Public Domain.
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Tune in next Friday, February 26, for Random Acts of Poetry.
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These are tough questions, Sam. Where we spend our time reveals our priorities much more so than what we profess with our mouths. Busyness seems to be the sickness of our society.
Like you, I love the Lenten season for it’s call to focus and slow down. It is a time to be gentle with oneself, just as Christ is with us.
Great post. Check in with us on your tv sacrifice! I’m pulling for you.
So far, so good on TV, Laura. Then again, I’ve been away for several days. This week will be the test.
I feel like I got left somewhere back in Epiphany. I’m so not ready for Lent. Every day lately, I’ve been trying to figure out what to give up, what to hold. If I give anything up for Lent, it will be my own striving to keep up. Just let things go. Rest in grace and move forward slowly, inviting God into the mess I’m trying to clean up before He comes in…
Quitting TV is an excellent practice. Although, I have TV currently my family lived without for about a year recently. Not a spiritual journey of sacrifice and reflection, simply an attempt to save a few dollars. We read more, shared more meaningful meals, had a much better bedtime routine (the children are 6, 3, and 4 months), and fellowshipped with friends and family much more frequently. It is a small act that will pretty much guarentee a simpler way of being, which in turn takes you deeper, or at least sets up the opportunity, to take a deeper walk with God. I say give it up, for lent and beyond. Much less politial apocalypse banter beaming into your world, much less vugarity, less questionably covered females for my 6 year old to ogle.
The sad note is we do have TV now, and at times we slip back into the potato mode.
Six-year olds? How about thirty-six-year olds!
Daniel, we spent our first five years of marriage without a TV and I remember many of the elements you mention here. I also remember going to friends’ house one night for dinner. A sitcom was on in the background and Julie and I found ourselves entranced by the thing, unable to look at the guests while they tried small talk. We finally laughed about our zombie-like conversation and asked if we could shut it off.
I like your honesty here, Sam. And quitting TV during the Olympics is no small thing, in my opinion.
(Between you and me, Megan, it’s a good thing Lent doesn’t start during the FIFA World Cup.)
I believe and practice in tithing my time…it’s a great way to keep things in balance.
And aren’t online activities a tremendous waste of time , including – ahem – , blogs?
David
http://www.redletterbelievers.com
every season is spiced with the changes going on in my family…i should be in the present…cannot help but dwell in the past/future at times..Lent . my pastor relayed his veiw as more of a challenge for us to “Do Something!” thought it was a new way to think about it …
It is surprising to me to find that in this season of the “empty nest” that I don’t find myself with more of that simplicity and rest. Instead, I long for days when I can just “be” and not have to be somewhere or do something.
It is a relief to know I’m not the only one who can’t remember conversations the minute they’re over or find the glasses I put down two minutes ago. I don’t think the Lord meant for our lives to be this way. One way for me to find a bit of peace is just to be quiet – to turn off the radio or the tv and just be surrounded by the silence – to think thoughts that don’t have a chance to fully develop in my crowded little brain.
I’m giving up sugar for Lent. I have a sneaking suspicion that what I really should give up is computer time
Ha! I’ve had those sneaking suspicions before, Linda. I typically suppress them by not letting them “fully develop in my crowded little brain.” No guilt!
Okay, so it isn’t a healthy practice, but TV for me and sugar for you may be fine places to start. (Does that mean no sugar substitutes either?)
actually i have picked up something for the the time being.
i have had a book sitting on my shelf for awhile and have decided that now is a good time to read. it is “you set my spirit free, a 40-day journey in the company of john of the cross”. it is a compilation of 40 devotional readings.
My fast from multitasking has not been the spiritual high I envisioned. Because I am limiting myself to one thing at a time, my time to talk on the phone has been reduced greatly (i.e. no talking and driving), leaving me feeling cut off from the world. That, and I usually listen to NPR while I work in order to keep up with the news. Since I get paid to work but do NOT get paid to listen to NPR, I am now without a regular news source. In this “detox” phase, I am finding myself drawing closer to Jesus, though. Which really is the goal. And when I am driving and can’t pick up the phone to call my friends or family, I pray for them.
Charity, spiritual high or not, I’m glad you’re sticking with it. Thank you for adding to my inspiration for this post!
Hmm. I am pondering David’s comment about online activities and Blogging being a tremendous waste of time. That stopped me in my tracks, because in some ways, he’s right. It’s probably the reason why there are so many blogs whining about this mess of busy-ness and multi-tasking. How free we would be if we stopped the blogging and social media! It carries it’s own version of tyranny with it. But it also opens up a sense of community, sharing, thinking, growing. Think I’ll have to do a post on this.
So, this year for Lent, for the first time ever – this lazy Protestant decided to take a baby step and do something. I have given up chocolate candy. Doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it’s someting I love, and look forward to partaking of every afternoon (my office has multiple candy jars in strategic locations). It’s a small thing compared to Sam giving up TV during the Olympics, but it’s a start. Already I can tell I will want to do something more next year.
BTW, everyone should know that Heather Goodman has given up social media for lent. Blogging, Twitter, and (gasp!) Facebook. Really. Here’s her post announcement, “Ashes to Ashes, We All Fall Dead.” http://heatheragoodman.com/content/ashes-ashes%2C-we-all-fall-dead
I left a comment, but not even sure if it will ever get approved until lent is over. I told her to come back in forty days and tell us all what it was like, and what, if anything, she learned from it.
Thanks for the link, Bradley. I like Heather’s summary:
“I’m not giving up social media because I think it’s a bad habit I need to break or because I need to get in shape or spend this time elsewhere. I’m giving it up because it is something meaningful to me that will daily remind me of my need for Christ.”
David may be calling the other group of us for whom social media is a bad habit. Fortunately, Lent creates space for both groups.
P.S. Regarding your candy fast, we missed you at Jubilee this weekend. You wouldn’t have liked the bacon-covered chocolate anyway, methinks.
sam, i have never held lent in my christian experience although i have witnessed it in many lives around me. i have tried throughout my christian walk to take daily stock of matters that keep me from being in the moment. i do this by reflecting where God was present and where God was not. this practice has without fail shown me so clearly where my eyes and heart are focused on earthly matters rather than eternal ones. i am not scared to be honest with myself. i also ask God to point out these things when my sin blinds my eyes.
i gave up facebook a few months ago, for good. it was the best decision i could have made.
perhaps i should start observing this practice. this is perhaps a gentle nudge towards something for me.
if i was to start today, although a few days late, it would be overworking during the week.
thank you for this post.
Then here’s to slower weeks, Claire. (And since you just started helping folks around HCB with photo selection and editing, I’ll try not to give you too much extra work.
)
As a Presbyterian, I’d never really observed Lent until moving to Cajun Country in South Louisiana. While teaching in an Episcopal school in a largely Catholic community, I’ve learned the beauty of this season and have enjoyed our little school’s weekly Way of the Cross readings and the packing away of the word “Hallelujah” until Easter Day.
Caroline, it was Catholics and Presbyterians who taught me the “beauty of this season.” And I’m glad for it.
Thanks for tuning in and sharing your comment.
nAncY, Claire, elk, Kelly and other photographers here:
How do you approach Lent with your camera? What do you try to capture? Are certain elements more important than others? Don’t feel like you need to answer this here, but the questions came to mind so I thought I’d ask.
What a beautiful post. Thank you.
I have decided to fast from 11am-4pm each day, as those are my “selfish hours”. It’s been a struggle thus far. I find myself filling in the void with more selfishness rather than Him. I want to rest, to be at peace, to long for Him with the core of who I am. It’s good to know others who observe the time of Lent struggle as well. It’s good to know that being countercultural is not as odd as it feels sometimes!
Good for you, Amy. Sacrifice should hurt a little.
Press on!
Check out Richard J. Foster’s ‘The Freedom of Simplicity’ for some similar reflections. Thank you for this.
I’ve given up caffeine for Lent, which may be related to busyness. I try to put too much on my plate, don’t get enough sleep, and try to live like an immortal by pumping caffeine through my system. I don’t want Sabbath, if I’m honest with myself – or I’m too harried to make time for it.
Great book, Pastor Mack. I learned an important lesson about tithing and the fasting from material goods in those pages.
Your caffeine habit and all of our similar performance-enhancing habits make me wonder if we should be disqualified like athletes caught with steroid use. (But disqualified at what?) They give us a supra-human advantage, which seems, I guess, less than human. I’m mostly thinking out loud right now, but I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts.