I have granddaughters………four of ’em. And I love them to death. Cindy and I recently took two of them out to dinner……..a very expensive dinner at a very nice rooftop restaurant with a stunning view of downtown Cincinnati. They spent the evening glued to their cell phones…….occasionally responding to a question with a monosyllable. I wanted to tell them that the people sitting in front of them were far more important than whatever was going on…….on their phones…….. that their relationship with Cindy and with me was far more valuable than their relationship with whatever app was running on their phone. But, I didn’t. I think that I realized that that battle had already been lost. I suspect that my experience is pretty common. Cindy and I will be gone in a decade or so……..and I suspect that they will not remember much about us.
I will keep trying to engage. I will keep driving a couple of hours to watch their games. I will keep giving……. that is what grandparents do. But, it occurs to me that they have a stronger relationship with their machines than they do with me. This loss of relationship causes me some pain…….but that really isn’t the point. The big problem is that forgoing a relationship with Cindy and me severely diminishes the quality of their lives. And they don’t seem to recognize this. The phone occupies them……but really doesn’t give them much in return. It is an empty promise. Does this sound familiar?
I come back to one of the great truths of life.
“If you want to have a friend………be a friend”.
And that brings me to the point of this post. How much effort do we put into the most important relationship in our world………our relationship with our creator……..our father…….Abba? On the other hand…..how much of our time do we invest in activities……..relationships……like our cell phones…..that give us very little in return……..that promise us nothing in the long run?
I propose a metric to answer this question:
How much time each day do you spend interacting with an app on your phone that does not have a human being on the other end. Compare this with the amount of time that you spend in prayer…….in conversation with God……in reading the Bible…….in spreading the good news.
Pretty convicting isn’t it?
Maybe it’s time to start moving the needle a bit. I’m not saying that you should toss your cell phone……and all of those amazing apps. But, maybe you can spend a little more effort on your relationship with your father. Maybe you can say a prayer of praise and thanks………just before you fire up “candy crush”.
I can’t imagine anything more terrifying than to finally meet Jesus…….and he looks at me and says, “I don’t know you……..go away”. There is no app on my phone that will save me. Only the relationship with God that I have spent years nurturing can do that.
On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Jesus, Matthew 7:22-23, ESV
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
Moses, Deuteronomy 6:5, ESV