Blocking Everyone Out

During the Olympics I happened to hear a commercial come on.  It said, "Tired of interacting with the people in your car?"  I was shocked at what I heard, so looked up to see what the commercial was talking about. It was a car commercial advertising a car with built-in head phones, video games, music, tv, all in the back seat.  I couldn't believe it!  Do we really live in a world that wants to block everything out and get away from it all - even our very own family members? I'm afraid we do.

Now, our family is on the extreme other side than the majority of people, I'm sure - especially to those who that car commercial would appeal to.  We've never had or wanted a DVD player in a vehicle or allowed much use of headphones at all.  When we bought our Expedition, the salesman was surprised that was not only not on our list, but we didn't want it as an option. On a couple of 22 hour trips to Florida, the kids watched a movie on a lap top or we might have given in to an hour total of headphones, but for the most part, we've just wanted interaction between all of us as family members.  We've always been in the car a lot for 15-60 minute trips, so that would have meant a lot of dependence on electronics adding up to many hours of non-interaction.

There's one are of life that it would be great if we could block everything out, and that is when it comes to our worship.  Wouldn't it be nice if every time we paused to pray, every time we read the Bible, every time we gathered together with our brothers and sisters in Christ that we did so without distraction?  Imagine being so totally focused on the Lord's Supper that nothing going on around you mattered.  I strive to do that, but am not always successful. Sometimes I'm distracted.  It's hard to NOT be distracted by what goes on around us.  In fact, I'm getting distracted just typing this post!

A few weeks ago we were in a Bose store. Bose is the top of the line when it comes to electronics/speakers/headphones.  We tried on a set of headphones.  You could hear NOTHING when you put them on. It was pretty nice! In fact, there were times during newborn days with our babies that we might have preferred to wear those headphones while tending to their needs!  It would have been less stressful, I'm sure!  But in reality, it's not good to block everything out around us.  We need to be aware of what is going on.  Yes, it is good, even great, to block out everything for worship, but then we must come back to reality and concentrate on being servants of God to those who are making the noise around us.

"Be still, and know that I am God...", Psalm 46:10.  Yes, be still. Be quiet.  Then be busy doing what God needs you and I to do.