Lunch, Time and Life

I was having lunch the other day with a friend and we were having serious talk, the kind I often wish I would with people.

The locus of the conversation darted about to the “young people of this generation”, and how we all seem very sensually driven. We observed that people of this generation tend to chase desperately after thrills and sensory pleasure to fill the emptiness, discontent, even boredom of our hearts.

I've come across across an article about this problem that really got me thinking. I'm convinced a lot of us have this problem, and we are greatly impoverished as a result.

Just as I was feeling a little crestfallen and absent-mindedly using my fork to push rice around on the plate, my friend remarked,

“Well Derk, we can thank God you yourself seem to have somehow avoided this problem!”

I couldn’t smile, because I know I’m not that much different. Maybe I’ve just got really good acting skills that help me to project a thoughtful exterior.

I'll be honest here: the time to be alone, contemplate, think and therefore experience the wonder in the world is getting harder and harder to find. Like most people of my generation, I too am getting bombarded with messages, demands, images and sounds far too often than is good or beneficial. Work is meaningful and good, but it is no walk in the park.

The iPhone has been a blessing in that I can take pictures and text my sister and friends overseas at any time, but it’s also been an invasive presence. I’ve just deleted the Facebook app , and already can feel some degree of relief, like the smell of rain on a hot day.

I’m also making it a point to carve out time in my daily schedule, in the midst of all the admittedly good things that demand my time. I know now that regular time to pause and reflect is worth fighting for.

Christ may be knocking on the door, but the way our generation is now, there are all kinds of other people banging on my windows, walls and or trying to climb down the chimney. And unlike the one who offers living water that will take my thirst away forever, these intruders just want to push cheap, glitzy wares that gives a moment's relief and leaves you hungrier than before.

Are we such children that the world can peddle us such junk, and succeed?

Lord, I ask for wisdom to distinguish what is vanity and what is of eternal value, and I ask for the fortitude to push away the former, and cling fast to the latter!