Are You Connected?
Skimming Generation
How do you read these days? Do you enjoy paper books? Do you read electronic books with electronic devices? The Guardian published an article called, “Skim reading is the new normal. The effect on society is profound” (August 25 2018, by Maryanne Wolf) The author said that as reading on electronic devices increases, readers in this smartphone age tend to skim more. The problem is that skimming is not always helpful, because there are certain information or knowledges that require more than skimming. It says, deep reading skills are under threat. The acquisition of literacy necessitated a new circuit of the human brain. That circuit will develop functions to decode basic information. The recent research depicts how the present reading brain enables the development of some of our most important intellectual and affective processes: internalized knowledge, analogical reasoning, and inference; perspective-taking and empathy; critical analysis and the generation of insight. This article shares another research result by Karin Littau and Andrew Pipler that human beings need a knowledge of where they are in time and space that allows them to return to things and learn from re-examination – what he calls the “technology of recurrence”.
The essence of this article is that we are living in the era, where skimming increases surface knowledge which does not require much effort to think or process, but skimming skills decreases ability to have deeper knowledge. Basically, we are not learning. We add our opinions with skimming which does not give us a chance to get deeper and internalization required knowledges.
Skimming and Subscriptions
Thus, everything is surface, very shallow facts and that generates deep emotional reactions. This phenomenon made its effect in our faith as well. Reading of religious books becomes obsolete. Even reading the Bible becomes, some people call it, the old way. By the way, I am not discouraging having a Bible app in your phones or tablets. It is not a bad thing. But at the same time, these technological advances have unintended consequences. In this skimming generation, we encounter trends of very shallow ownership, avoiding deep and full ownership. Instead of owning, we sign up for subscriptions. It began with movies, but subscription business is one of the most fast growing businesses in our days. Maybe it is for our convenience which I don’t try to disagree. But there are things in which you cannot just subscribe. One good example is a relationship. There are attempts on making human relationships as business subscription services. Furthermore, there have been attempts to make faith as subscription based. Society recognizes that we humans need faith, but the trend of shallow and casual commitment, having faith and committing for discipleship for Christ became really an odd concept. So we struggle with that.
However, God loves us so much. Thus, He takes this relationship very seriously. It wasn’t just a skimming based shallow commitment. God committed Himself to give everything to reconnect with us. God took it seriouse enough to send His only Son to pay the ultimate price. Don’t you want to know more about it? And if that has a notion to your eternal life, I don’t think you just want to skim it.
The First Connection
God created us with dust. Genesis 2:7 (NKJV) says, “The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” That was the first connection. The breath of life from God was the connection with the first man on the earth. Adam and Eve, the first couple enjoyed this direct connection, and they had this full, deep knowledge and understanding about God. After they took the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, human knowledge of good has been shrunk down because of the knowledge of evil. We got to the point where we have this tendency these days that everyone wants to have spoon fed knowledge of God. Some people say spoon fed knowledge of God is a good thing because we can believe one thing, calling it “Unity.” However, it is dangerous because the person who fed the knowledge of God is also a human being. What if that person gets things wrong?
The breath of life was not passed through the third party. The breath of life was breathed into the nostrils of man directly from God. We all have to receive this breath of life directly, not through someone or a third party agent.
There is an app called, Blinkist. This is an app that summarizes a book in fifteen minutes. There is a benefit of using this app because we are always busy. We do not have time to read, start to finish, a five hundred page book. Thus, this app does the hard work for you, and summarizes the main ideas. I think it is a good way to gain knowledge, but I don’t think we want our relationships with summary.
When you are in love with someone, you want to know everything about that person. We don’t want just a few things about that person. We want to know everything about that person. Good or bad, if you are in love with someone, you want to know everything about that person, and you will want to spend time to study that person.
God came down to earth, and He came down to the ground and touched the dust to create you and me. He wanted to have that deep personal, intimate connection with you and me. Why? Because we are created for God’s glory. If we have desire to connect with God with all our hearts and minds, God will be glorified by our willing act of worship. In that regard, we cannot just skim God’s character. We need to know about Him deeply.
The Parable of the Sower
This is one of the parables that was mentioned in three of the gospel books. Luke 8:4-8 (NKJV) talks about the parable of the sower, and Jesus provides explanations in verses 11-15.
“A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it. Some fell on rock; and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. But others fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded a crop a hundredfold.”
“Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away. Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity. But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.”
Connection
One of the fundamental elements of this parable is connection. It is not about the seed. The seed is provided. We cannot provide. The ground is us. The different outcome is determined by what kind of connection is created by different conditions of the ground. The conditions of the ground matter the most. The quality of connection will be determined by the condition of the soil. As I was thinking about the connection, I cannot help but think about the connection between the service tower and our cell phones.
Do you use a smartphone? Do you look for wifi all the time? Smartphones have become a huge part of our daily life, so we cannot ignore the importance of smartphones. However, you have to realize that a smartphone is totally useless if there is no reception signal from the service provider. Your smartphone device is functional only if your phone is connected to either a wifi signal of service signal.
The first group of seed fell by the wayside. The wayside is a pathway for many people and animals. It became very dry and hard. No seed can be rooted down to the ground. It is like a situation when you barely have any service signal in your phone. You phone is on, but you barely get any information transmitted to your phone. You listen to the Word of God, it doesn’t work in your heart. The Word of God was seeded in your heart by reading or hearing the message but you are just not interested. The words that they hear just passes by like those commercials on the radio programs. God created that connection with us from the beginning. But the ground of the wayside is not interested at all. What’s going to happen to the seed? The devil will work very fast to take that word away from this mind.
It is like a phone without any wifi signal or internet signal. You are not getting any information or purpose from the Creator. In order to get the signal, the Holy Spirit is needed. If you have a mind like this, that any words that you hear or read are not really deeply rooted, you don’t have a desire to connect with God, I would like to pray for you. I pray that God’s willing desire will be in your heart, so that you can have a seed of God and bear fruit.
The second group of seed fell on the rocky ground. The rocky ground to me is maybe one or two bars of signal on the phone. Have you been to a place very far from a tower? Like a desert or a place where there is a reception signal but you are not able to use the internet at all? I went to the Zions Canyon National Park, and it is just a wonderful place to be. The problem is that when you entered the park, your phone will say that you have the signal, but it is not strong enough to use the internet. It shows the time, but you cannot be on the internet and unable to send or receive pictures while you are in that park. Your phone is there, but not really effective.
Don’t we have our heart like that sometimes? When we are linked to the word and heard the message, we are energized and motivated to change, but it doesn’t make meaningful changes in the future. Actually, the motivation itself will be challenged when we face temptations or difficulties. You are touched and moved, but we don’t really take any actions. Because We think about ourselves first. Our self interest goes first. we do not want to face inconvenience. We do not want to sacrifice. We do not want to be committed. But, we want eternal life. We want glory. We want to get all the praises. We can call it very shallow faith. Whenever “I” or “self” take the center of our life, we become like a phone barely getting the signal but not being able to use its full potential. When “self” takes the center, it is just difficult to experience the power of the Holy Spirit. If we are not rooted in the Holy Spirit, not letting the Holy Spirit take control of your life, it will be difficult to overcome the temptations.
The third group of seed fell on the thorny ground. In thorny ground, the seed can survive a little bit, but the thorns will hinder the growth of the seed. This situation can be described as you having full bars with LTE signal, but you are in the state fair ground, where thousands of people are there, sharing one tower signal. Because there are too many people using the signal, you are sharing your line with countless people, and that will make your phone useless.
Jesus described this group as people who hear the Word, make changes but there are too many different areas of interest in the world. They care about what they eat, what they wear, what they drive. They know the all the brands, all the prices of the real estate market details. They check their investments all the time, but when it comes to spiritual matters, or things that will make an impact in their connection with God, they are distracted. Politics can be the distracting factor. Your relationship with other church members can be that too. If this church is a place where your personal relationship with someone can have a stronger impact than the Word of God, you might be in this situation. There is no way to get rid of the worries and concerns. Everyone has something. But worldly worries and concerns should not be more important than your relationship with God.
Good Soil!
Good ground is a place where we can bear fruits. The Word of God can root down in our hearts, and not only will it grow, but it will bear fruits. One of the distinctions of the good soil is that it can yield crop. It is fruitful. It is like a phone with 5G connection with the strongest wifi signal. That phone can do anything, google, youtube, and any social media connections work without any problems. The phone can meet its purpose and the owner is satisfied.
We want to have this deep connection with God so that the Holy Spirit can work and bear fruit. This is the work of the Holy Spirit. John 14:15-18 says this, “If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever- the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”
If we have the Spirit of God working in us, we will be able to bear the fruit. Some people are always curious about whether we can be free from sin or not. This perfection discussion is totally meaningless because even if you can live your life without sins, if you do not have the Holy Spirit working in you, your spotless life is not spotless before God. We will be perfect when we allow the Holy Spirit to come in and let Him live in us. As the Holy Spirit controls our lives, We will bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
One of the most important characteristics of the good soil is yielding crops. We have the fruits of the Holy Spirit in Galatians 5; “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” (Galatian 5:22, NKJV) How can we bear these fruits, we have to have the Holy Spirit. We can’t bear these fruits by ourselves. As we welcome the Spirit of God in us, these can be the fruits.
How Can We Do This?
First, the good ground was described that it heard the word with a noble and good heart. Matthew and Mark describe it as those who study the Scripture with humble minded, with a desire to know more about God. We have been encouraging our members to get involved in life groups and small groups. Many people have this question, what do we when we get together? I would say, you can do anything you want, but I want each group to read the Scripture together. Just have discussions on life reflecting what they just read from the Scripture. You talk and you internalize it. Take the lesson in your heart and remember.
Second, spend good quality time with God. Many people have the question about how can I spend time together with God? I don’t want to say there is only one way to do it because we are all different. The bottom line is you have to have a knowledge and insight from God. I just don’t know where you can get that knowledge or insight of God. Sometimes, life experiences, sometimes from nature but when it gets very serious, we have to have refreshing insights from the Word of God. But, there is a limit if you just want to have a summarized version of this insight. When you are dating with someone, if you are just interested in some kind of reward or desired pleasure from the person, you won’t get to know that person. The reward based relationship cannot be long. There must be some kind of dedication and commitment to get to know God. The Scripture gives that primary source of insight and knowledge of God. When you ponder into it, you will have a very deep encounter with God.
Third, internalize it. Just think about what it means to the people in that situation and what it means to me. I am not talking of just meditating on the Word. The stories in the Scripture should have a connection with my daily walk. There are things that don’t really make sense in our daily walks. How we internalize the principles and insights from the Scripture is a very important matter when we face this reality of non sense. Jesus said, “I will pray to the Father to send Helper, the Spirit of Truth.” We can only understand our reality by the power of the work of the Spirit of Truth. Once we see new insight from the Scripture, you have to internalize it. Let Christ live in us. Let the teachings and principles of Christ’s love mold me. When we can do this, we are one step closer to being a good soil.
Lastly, Take Actions! We live in a society with a lot of pressure to make our faith private. Not that I say we should impose or force others to practice religious the way we do, but we should not be shy in our actions based on the beliefs we have. What God had done to me must be the principle of what I should do to others. Our faith journey must be visible. Like Enoch did, we have to live upon it.
Let’s have this deep connection with God. All God wants is to reconnect with us. Not just shallow or surface level, but deep connection with God. When Jesus fell asleep in that boat, Satan blows the winds and waves. The disciples were terrified and asking Jesus to wake up. Jesus woke up and talked about lack of faith. That gives us insight, that if we have this deep relationship with God, we do not have to have a fear about this stormy world. We can have peace and we can begin to live the everlasting life from now. Don’t we want that? Let’s get into a deep talk with God!
