Recalibrating

January 15, 2019

Back when this country was founded, people got their news perhaps once a week; even less frequently for those who lived on the frontier. They had time to ponder and consider the implications of what they read. Even into the Twentieth Century, it often took days for the latest happenings in Washington or Moscow or Berlin to reach the masses. World War II had its correspondents, but the battles were over long before the reporting of them hit our shores. Even the newsreels that introduced the Saturday matinees reported events that had happened weeks ago.

It all began to change during the Vietnam war, when almost-instantaneous reporting gave us nightly insight into the changing fortunes of battle, and those who gave us eyewitness accounts began to see themselves not only reporting the news, but shaping it. The era of the evening news hour was already fast coming to a close when CNN launched its round the clock channel. Others followed, and soon we found ourselves inundated with information, but starved of the time necessary to process it. We soon became slaves of the sound bite, surrendering thoughtful reflection to the addictive draw of the immediate emotional reaction. We no longer possess a worldview that enables us to consider all that is happening before offering a measured and thoughtful response. We are trying to drink out of an informational fire hose, and wonder why we are blown all over the landscape by its pressure.

This morning on my way to town, I couldn’t get my mind reeled in from some of the latest absurdities coming out of Albany and Washington. I was trying to follow St. Paul’s admonition in 2 Corinthians 10 to bring our errant thoughts captive to Christ, but they were giving me a run for my money. Then I read today’s Scripture from Daily Light on the Daily Path; mental and spiritual medicine I sorely needed. It began like this:

“My soul clings to the dust; give me life according to your word!”

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For...your life is hidden with Christ in God.”

My soul indeed clings to the dust. Or more accurately, the dust clings to me. Only in God’s Word do I find life, and then, only when I seek things above and set my mind on them. This isn’t the sum total of what I need to do; I cannot shirk civil responsibility by quoting Scripture, but neither can I exercise it wisely apart from having my mind and heart shaped by Scripture. Such shaping requires time. Time to sit, to reflect, to pray. Skimming over the text is like gobbling a fast-food meal; it satisfies initially, but long-term nutritionally, our souls starve. So I am making time for reflection and meditation, seeking, setting my mind, recalibrating my soul to the only GPS that really matters: God’s Positioning System. Isaiah’s words as I remember them from years ago remain true: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee.” (26:3)