The (Not So) Flat Earth Society

I just got a new iWatch--one of the newest ones that we ordered for my birthday.  It's pretty cool, I have to admit.  

When we ordered my watch some weeks ago, we were still in Florida and driving to Orlando to meet some friends for dinner.  When we were told that it wouldn't be able to be delivered until the second week of December, we had it sent to the Apple store near where we knew we would be living in Texas.  I picked it up yesterday at a mall in Austin.  

It's amazing to me that the world has gotten so flat, and that we have the ability and opportunity to be so connected to one another.  I was reminded this morning of the words of Shakespeare from the Tempest:  "O brave new world..."  

The world has gotten flatter, to be sure, but we're now dealing with a new set of issues.  Singer/songwriter Michael David Rosenberg (known more widely as "Passenger") recently wrote, "We should stare at the stars and not just the screens/You should hear what I'm saying and know what it means."

It's sobering, but even in the midst of all of this connectivity and technological novelty, people are still struggling to find peace, to discover true purpose for their lives.  I read once that right now there are more people walking around in the world, dealing with depression and anxiety than at any other time in history. 

Sometimes I feel as though as Christians we should be doing a better job of addressing the real issues that people are dealing with, rather than speaking to them in religious platitudes. 

Listen, when you are going through some gut-wrenching stuff the last thing you want to hear is: "Well, God works everything for your good..."  While that might be very true--sometimes we need to dig a little deeper.  

In Jeremiah chapter 6, God calls out religious people who gloss over the hurting people of the world and says, 

"They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious.‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace." (Jeremiah 6:14)

We have to do better.  We should be aware of one another, more empathetic, and more in tune with the way Jesus approached people who needed to hear a word of hope.  Listen to the words of Jesus as the benediction for today's devotion: 

28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-29)

And may the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you now and always. Amen.