By the very act of arguing, you awaken the patient’s reason; and once it is awake, who can foresee the result? Even if a particular train of thought can be twisted so as to end in our favor, you will find that you have been strengthening in your patient the fatal habit of attending to universal issues and withdrawing his attention form the stream of immediate sense experiences. Your business is to fix his attention on the stream. Teach him to call it ‘real life’ and don’t let him ask what he means by ‘real’.
Your affectionate uncle
SCREWTAPE
I have been wrestling for some time with the effort to put words to my current anxiety. Per usual, I don’t have to; someone much wiser than me has already done so half a century ago. The only thing I think I have to add to this is perhaps some present day context, and the commitment to bring this conversation to the table of my friendships and community.
I believe this is a serious problem, and the sting of the indictment needs to be felt by my generation. I plainly admit that I am chief among sinners in this regard, but it is my sincere hope that such an admission does not detract from the potency of this reproof.
We have been gleefully swallowed up by our technology into a sea of superficial life cataloging endeavors. In this unconscious transaction we have forfeited the depth of our relationships for a paper thin surface of familiarity and before long that familiarity will breed contempt.
They still connect thinking with doing and were prepared to alter their way of life as the result of a chain of reasoning.
In 2009, let us pray for the wisdom to unplug in a profound way.
Go deeper with fewer people.
Start with Jesus.
Categories: Challenges, Confessions, Technology, Relationships, Books
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