There was a time when I was working as a Project Manager for a digital innovations team at a large church in the Bible Belt and living in a tent. It was a dichotomous lifestyle that changed the way I interact with people, the environment, and technology.
During the day I was plugged into the matrix, working on a team that prided itself on developing innovative web applications for the Church. It was a multi-layered environment, much like Grey’s Anatomy, except monogamous and straight edge. What I mean is it was a fast-paced, collaborative environment with multiple threads, all tied to an overarching meta-narrative related to creating new technology-driven tools for churches. It was sexy, it was cool, and it was exhausting.
After work, I would drive or bike to my campsite, settled among 15 acres of woodland in Metro Oklahoma City. I called it “TentLife.” It was a place to unplug and unwind, where everything took longer and nothing was easy. (Find out more about TentLife at www.tentlife.net.)
Now, I’m not anti-technology, I love the new channels that the Internet has made available for the Church to proclaim the message of Christ across multiple mediums. It has truly changed the face of communication, community, and the collection of information. This “age of convergence” gives us the ability to do more, use more, and be more than our grandfathers ever dreamed. It’s a world where “me”-enabled technology allows constant digital connectivity and exploits the Internet as an avenue to disseminate personal knowledge and firsthand experience to the masses. The world is no longer our backyard—our backyard has become the world.
In this digitized environment, many are careening toward the edge of the unknown. In the marketplace, we say these people or businesses are on the “bleeding edge,” on the forefront of technology, innovation, and discovery.
Inventors are always getting dirty, stubbing their toes, and cutting their fingers on projects for tomorrow. In a real sense, our world has been shaped by hours of toil and the cumulative blood, sweat, and tears of innovators. In my opinion, social media has contributed to the deception that we all can be innovators and leaders, experts and specialists. I think this false sense of ingenuity has led many to adopt a lifestyle that distracts from where God is calling them to employ their gifts and talents.
At some point we must slow down, take a moment, and listen.
I love being on the bleeding edge, but I realized that continuous innovation can distract from reflection and living in the present. Have you found this to be true? You’re talking with a friend or acquaintance and all of the sudden there is a lull in the conversation, an awkward silence, and instead of redirecting with a question, you pull out your smartphone and check Twitter. I have committed this social faux pas innumerable times. At times when you used to experience uninterrupted silence, do you find yourself once again pulling out your phone to check your RSS feeds or play a game? I’m guilty.
In a way, TentLife began as an adventure in simplifying my life, but it became something much more than I anticipated. During my time living in a tent, I experienced an awakening of my imagination and a rekindling of my passion for deeper relationships with God and people. All these things were found in the deafening silence of solitude.
The Bible (specifically, 1 Kings 19) tells a story of a man named Elijah, who was running from his enemy and trying to discern from the Lord where to go next. As he was lodged in a cave on the side of a mountain, he waited for the voice of the Lord. Suddenly, gale force winds tore into the mountainside, but the Lord was not in this rush of air; then an earthquake shook the mountain’s foundation, but the Lord was not in the rumbling; after the earthquake a fire broke out along the mountain’s terrain, but the Lord was not in the roaring flames; finally in the aftermath, in the silence, a still soft voice whispered. It was in silence and solitude that Elijah found a centering voice, balance, and direction amidst the noise of his life.
Noise is very familiar to us. It seems that everyone has a voice nowadays thanks to blogs, Twitter, and Facebook. Everyone is a social media expert selling their knowledge to the world via 140 characters. The conversations are incessant —constant streams of commercial advertisements, personal propaganda, and prideful ignorance that flow into an ever-growing river of white noise. In many ways, technology has made it easier to voice your opinion and expertise, but this ease of communication leads me to an important question: With all this chatter, who is actually heard?
The loudest? The coolest? The most provocative? The most polished?
Thanks to reality television and overnight Internet success stories, we all desire to be known, to be famous. But fame is a deplorable desire. Fame is a replacement for affirmation we should be receiving from God. Fame is a short-term placebo. Fame is a narcissistic pill that feeds an addiction. Those affected cannot shut off the spigot of nourishing flattery derived from social media and expect to be triumphant over the fear, the horror, of not being heard. In our struggle to be discovered by the masses, we forget to listen. It is a dichotomous life. Drowning in the noise with our fingers on the drain, we lack the discipline to unplug.
To be clear, social media is not to blame for our inattention to the voice of God, as it is just a medium that has the capacity to distract. Just as the story of Elijah suggests, there are countless awe-inspiring diversions keeping us from the stillness of silence and solitude. If you feel technology has overrun your life, disconnecting you from God and those around you, the solution is simple: each piece of technology has a switch, an on/off button that controls the flow. And in turning off our devices we can change our perspective. No longer controlled by technology, we find time to be creative for His purpose and to connect with others in meaningful conversation. We become a body of believers striving to bring the Kingdom of God to those around us utilizing any medium necessary—sometimes we may even use Twitter.
Sam Duregger wishes he were a social entrepreneur because it sounds very sophisticated and important. He blogs at www.duregger.net.