is that it is so rewarding.
Information is delivered reliably by my pocket super-computer pretty much 24-7, in the form of a notification, an interaction waiting to be had on a social network, or just the discovery of another something interesting online. But it’s not the information that makes me check it. It’s the pleasure. Don’t you feel it at the ding of the notification too? It’s a sense of connection to the lives of others through email, text, and social networks that calls to me from my jeans pocket, the counter, and the nightstand. Though usually small, these pleasures are quite real.
Though this connection does cost me some money, the real cost is this: because my iPhone connects me so easily and pleasurably to something bigger than myself, I look to it to do that.
And when I look to it, how can I look to God? How can I process my life with God in a way that could become prayer without ceasing, when my sense of connection is already satisfied? I don’t have room for a wagyu filet; I never even sat down in the restaurant because hey, there was free popcorn in the lobby!
In indulging too much short-term pleasure, I give up what could deeply satisfy. And before anyone says this is an ironic post, let me offer a simple solution.
Fast.
Not from all pleasures, forever. And certainly not unto self-righteousness or an air of religiosity.
Fast unto hunger, and hunger unto deeper satisfaction, for he is a rewarder of those who seek him (Hebrews 11:6).