Who have you “phubbed” today?  The word of the day unfortunately is “phubbing.” According to dictionary.com phubbing involves ignoring a person or one’s surroundings when in a social situation by busying oneself with a phone or other mobile device.  Who hasn’t been phubbed? Competing with that inanimate 6 x 3 inch box for attention today is more than disheartening!

One night at dinner, my son-in law brought his phone to the table.  I quietly and politely picked it up and nicely placed it on the kitchen counter.  I sat down and said “We are going to connect” and I smiled. We had a great supper that night eating the delicious meal my wife had prepared.  We also talked and laughed. We connected. Imagine that?

Television Sports Director Dave Burchett writes from Waking Up Slowly:

“Our culture has information-fatigue syndrome, and Christians are just as infected as the general populace.  Three-quarters of adults now use a social-networking site of some kind. The average time spent on those sites is a staggering sixteen minutes per hour.  The solution suggested by one publication is a digital detox. That is defined as (and I am not making this up) “a period of time during which a person refrains from using electronic devices so one can focus on social interaction in the physical world.”  

Umm…if those sobering facts do not wake you from your glazed fixation…is there any hope for you or this world?  Watching folks sitting in the pew at church passing around their tablet device of their daughters’ prom pictures while the service is being conducted is a little more than disturbing.  

What is sad for most people today (young and old) is their electronic devices are the last thing their eyes look at before going to sleep.  Burchett goes deeper: “We are the most connected culture in history and yet, at the same time, the most disconnected from God and one another.”  How then do you reconnect with the One who made you, the One who loves you, and the One who sacrificed His son for you?

It has everything to do with what you look at…on a regular basis. Hebrews gets a little more specific: “We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith…” (12:2a NLT)  That verse then begs the question… “Well how do you keep your eyes on Jesus?” No, I cannot see Jesus or God but I can read their words. We have 66 books to choose from in the Bible.  God’s detailed and relevant text messages to you and I as we live down here on planet earth. But this is thing about God. He will not force you to open His book.

Paul sums it up: “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely and admirable. (Philippians 4:8a NLT) What will occupy what you view today?

pictures courtesy of “Nelson & his Nikon”