Saturday, November 12, 2016

Today’s Hymn            
In our joys and in our sorrows,
days of toil and hours of ease,
still he calls, in cares and pleasures,
“Christian, love me more than these.”

Jesus calls us: by thy mercies,
Savior, may we hear thy call,
give our hearts to thy obedience,
serve and love thee best of all.

Cecil Frances Alexander’s “Jesus Calls Us”
from Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal

Reflection
Information overload is an endemic issue that affects everyday life for the vast majority of adults in our society. Studies conducted by the Barna Group (a faith-based think tank) reveal that 71 percent of adults “feel overwhelmed by the amount of information they need to stay up to date,” that 54 percent of us think we have “too much information,” and that 35 percent of us feel that the personal electronics that are delivering this torrent of information to us are getting in the way of our relationships with other people.

Is it any wonder then that, in an age of constant communication and hyperconnectivity, so many of us feel isolated, disconnected from other people and from God? We’re spiritually exhausted by a constant stream of information that overwhelms us. It can leave us feeling more confused than ever about the world we live in and does little to help us find our own place in it.

Given this reality, how can we love Jesus Christ? When we don’t have the space to pause, clear our minds, and hear ourselves think, how can we hear Christ’s call to faithfulness and to service?

Consider taking a digital sabbath. Whether we take one day a week away from our personal devices or we just try to reduce the number of hours each day we have them on, the point of practicing digital sabbath is to “[reshape] your everyday technology habits—the ones that lead to feelings of being overwhelmed, distracted, and fragmented.” You can reflect more on how you might do this by looking at this helpful blog entry.

Maybe taking this kind of a break can be the beginning of living out Alexander’s plea, “By thy mercies, Savior, may we hear thy call, give our hearts to thy obedience, serve and love thee best of all.”

Prayer
Faithful God, in all our joys and sorrows, through the mundane details of our days of toil and days of ease, you continue to call us to faithfulness and to loving relationship with you. Give us the wisdom to turn aside from a world that cries out to us about urgency but that cannot give us what we critically need—your peace. Amen.

Written by Hardy H. Kim, Associate Pastor for Evangelism

Reflection and Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church

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