![\"teens-stress.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/120\/import\/imgs\/teens-stress.jpg\")
<\/span>I’m typing this blog from my laptop while text messaging, checking my
\nemail, listening to my Ipod, updating my Twitter and sipping an iced
\nmocha. I’m totally wired–both from caffeine and all the electrical
\ncords juicing all my gadgets. Just another over-stimulated day in the
\n“technopolis” of the 21st century world.<\/p>\nAs I wrap up another year of high school ministry one thing is for
\ncertain: teenagers are too busy, involved in too many things, trying to
\nplease too many people–all this while trapped in a fast-paced,
\nover-stimulated world of hypertechnology and seeing no easy way out of
\nthis vast web of over-connectivity.<\/p>\n
I’m researching the power of culture and media technology in
\npreparation for two messages I’m giving this weekend to senior high
\nstudents at a missions retreat. I’m speaking on the topic of
\n“Discipleship of the Mind” based on the popular movie trilogy, “The
\nMatrix.” The book I’m reading is A Matrix of Meanings: Finding God in
\nPop Culture by Craig Detweiler and Barry Taylor. Here’s some insights
\nfrom the chapter I’m currently reading<\/p>\n
\n
\nJeremy Rifkin, author of The Age of Access<\/i>, notes, “The techno gurus
\npromised us that instant access would lighten our loads and give us
\nback more time. Is it possible, instead, that the nanosecond culture is
\nenslaving us in a web of ever-accelerating connections from which there
\nseems to be no escape?”<\/p>\n
He mentions the rising number of boys being diagnosed with attention
\ndeficit hyperactivity disorder in the U. S., saying, “Is it any wonder?
\nIf a child grows up in an environment surrounded by the fast pace of
\ntelevision, video games, computers and constant media stimulation,
\nchances are that his neural development will condition to a short
\nattention span.”<\/p>\n
Sadly, parents have often proven little help in this arena. Newsweek
\nreported that “millions of parents around the country say their lives
\nhave become a frantic rush in the minivan from school to soccer to
\npiano lessons and then hours of homework. But they’re trapped, afraid
\nto slow down because any blank space in the family calendar could mean
\ntheir offspring won’t have the resumes to earn thick letters from
\nHarvard–and big bucks forever after.”<\/p>\n
Yet, as our calendars get fuller and fuller, our souls grow emptier and
\nemptier. The wisdom of Jesus is proven again: “What shall it profit a
\nman, if he should gain the whole world (the electronic world included)
\nbut lose his own soul” (Mark 8:36). Our souls long for silence, inner
\npeace, temporary disconnection from the technological in order to
\nmomentarily reconnect to the spiritual.<\/p>\n
![\"alone-with-god.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/120\/import\/imgs\/alone-with-god.jpg\")
<\/span>We are spiritual beings designed with spiritual appetites and thirsts
\nthat TV or Twitter cannot quench. We owe it to the more hidden places
\nof our being–those quieter areas that will not show themselves on a
\ndigital screen–to begin listening to the deeper yearnings for escape,
\nsolitude, and renewal. I suspect that if we did take an internal Holiday of the soul, visiting those
\nexotic far off, neglected areas of our inner being, while leaving our
\nelectronic gadgets behind, we just might encounter the God who is
\nunseen–the God who reveals himself in the wilderness, and speaks in
\n“the still, soft whisper.”<\/p>\n“Go out and stand before me on top of the mountain,” the LORD said to
\nhim. Then the LORD passed by and sent a furious wind that split the
\nhills and shattered the rocks–but the LORD was not in the wind. The
\nwind stopped blowing, and then there was an earthquake–but the LORD was
\nnot in the earthquake. After the earthquake there was a fire–but the
\nLORD was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the soft whisper
\nof a voice” (1 Kings 19:11-12).<\/p>\n
“Yet Jesus often withdrew to lonely places for prayer” (Luke 5:16).<\/p>\n
So, Jesus Creed friends:<\/p>\n
How do you escape the constant buzz of the 21st century technopolis? <\/p>\n
How do you practice Jesus’ habit of retreat and solitude amidst your busy schedules? How do you intentionally unplug? <\/p>\n
How do we help hyper-connected teenagers disconnect for their own “internal Holiday of the soul”? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A post from Jeremy Berg for our Friday is (from and) for Friends: I’m typing this blog from my laptop while text messaging, checking my email, listening to my Ipod, updating my Twitter and sipping an iced mocha. I’m totally wired–both from caffeine and all the electrical cords juicing all my gadgets. Just another over-stimulated…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gospel"],"yoast_head":"\n
Friday is for Friends: Jeremy Berg - Jesus Creed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/05\/friday-is-for-friends-jeremy-b-2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Friday is for Friends: Jeremy Berg - Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A post from Jeremy Berg for our Friday is (from and) for Friends: I’m typing this blog from my laptop while text messaging, checking my email, listening to my Ipod, updating my Twitter and sipping an iced mocha. I’m totally wired–both from caffeine and all the electrical cords juicing all my gadgets. 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