Tuesday, January 18, 2005
... all the lonely people, where do they all come from?
the line from that song popped into my head and i googled it. the resulting beatles lyrics are a bit depressing... but unfortunately indicative of our age. its sad, but it seems the more medium we provide to allow people to "connect," the more isolated and lonely people seem. we are all somehow stuck behind a computer terminal, sharing the bulk of our everyday existance with a machine.
we communicate online, converse online, even "meet" people online. for the sake of efficency? fear?
i've been continuing to read this book called "eve's revenge." she address the idea that we desire to escape our embodiment because it is often too painful. yet of all methods God could have chosen to save His people, He chose the "embodiement" of His most precious Son, to experience the pain and limitations of flesh as well as to redeem us from it. to provide hope through it.
i wonder how that idea of a desire for the spiritual (in how it is conceived in contemporary america) ends up manifesting in a bifurcation of matter and essence connect with our "online" presence. perhaps its the new face of gnosticism.... that somehow, the "idea" of the person through words or conception communicated through words is "better" than the reality of such a person. just like in platonism, the actual "matter" would never match up to the "idea" of the thing itself. and that is the way we see people... and relationships. its easier to go through this relatively "safe" medium rather than to deal with the grittiness of the reality of another person and relating to another person. but the more you enter into this world, the more difficult it is to escape it. because it is "efficient" and "pragmatic."
... today, i'm thankful that God's grace is not a matter of efficiency and pragmatism, that he lavishes His love, manifest even flesh and all of its grittiness, upon underserving people.
(1) comments
the line from that song popped into my head and i googled it. the resulting beatles lyrics are a bit depressing... but unfortunately indicative of our age. its sad, but it seems the more medium we provide to allow people to "connect," the more isolated and lonely people seem. we are all somehow stuck behind a computer terminal, sharing the bulk of our everyday existance with a machine.
we communicate online, converse online, even "meet" people online. for the sake of efficency? fear?
i've been continuing to read this book called "eve's revenge." she address the idea that we desire to escape our embodiment because it is often too painful. yet of all methods God could have chosen to save His people, He chose the "embodiement" of His most precious Son, to experience the pain and limitations of flesh as well as to redeem us from it. to provide hope through it.
i wonder how that idea of a desire for the spiritual (in how it is conceived in contemporary america) ends up manifesting in a bifurcation of matter and essence connect with our "online" presence. perhaps its the new face of gnosticism.... that somehow, the "idea" of the person through words or conception communicated through words is "better" than the reality of such a person. just like in platonism, the actual "matter" would never match up to the "idea" of the thing itself. and that is the way we see people... and relationships. its easier to go through this relatively "safe" medium rather than to deal with the grittiness of the reality of another person and relating to another person. but the more you enter into this world, the more difficult it is to escape it. because it is "efficient" and "pragmatic."
... today, i'm thankful that God's grace is not a matter of efficiency and pragmatism, that he lavishes His love, manifest even flesh and all of its grittiness, upon underserving people.
(1) comments
