To me the the book's themes seem to revolve mainly around the premise of shifting your attention from your Social media, or really your phone, as this seems to be the main target, and looking up (at God) and around (at people and what God is doing with people and what we can do for them).
The other focus so far, and a reoccurring theme, is being present in the moment.
The most touching example of which is a story in which Wendy relates how her children ran inside one day to alert her an uncanny natural phenomenon occurring literally in her own back yard. That phenomenon was thousands of butterflies passing through her garden whilst migrating simultaneously due to some unusual climatic conditions. She notes how her first response is to get her phone and stream this on social media but due to a Holy Spirit nudge she decides instead to share the moment with her children. She uses a phrase that her mother used to say to her, to take a mental picture. There are some flaws with this in my case because my memory doesn't really appear to work like hers, however, on adopting this approach she has a wonderful moment with her kids and is able to summon the sense of it through this mental picture she has captured. The primary point is the wonder around you and seeing God in the world and being present for that. Her kid says 'good job God', which is how she taught him to define praise, and they all join in with this. She is encouraging us to have many of these good job moments. Also, she finds that many people recorded the moment on social media (etc) meaning that she has had many opportunities to revisit footage of the event, without missing it in real time, and when she looked around in any direction for a few weeks afterwards, she could never see les than 20 or so Butterflies. The point being, that she did not really miss out as she feared she might by stopping to be in the moment rather than reaching for the phone.
I am not unmoved by her account of this, her words being far more eloquent than my hurried ones (indeed I shed a couple of tears), but I am asking myself if this is really me?
Don't get me wrong. I need to revel in the glories of Jesus all around me and I certainly need to take time, but I also have always found this to be the case in this area; I cant force myself to appreciate beauty. I have been left cold often by sights others would describe as breath taking. People have said to me in the past that they don't really like music. I cannot believe anyone can not be bothered about music. IT'S MUSIC, for God's sake! But I assure you such people are out there. I often see things I know should move me. That is a thing of beauty , I will say, but it doesn't always illicit joy.
I've been writing poems since I was 14 but you can probably count my poems on natural beauty on my ten digits.
So how do you cultivate that?
Have you ever had to apologize when you're not sorry? Have you ever had to say thank you when you're not grateful? Meaningless, as the ecclesiastical preacher would say. Utterly meaningless.
I have tried to cultivate gratitude, and I continue to do so, but it tends to go like this...'Thank you Lord for..., I recognize that this is something I should be grateful for'. But where is the heart? Maybe one day it will catch up with the words.
Don't get me wrong. I have lost my mind over the feeling that the smell of the ocean evokes when I'm swimming in it, to the point of wanting to cry. The heartachingly simple beauty of the purple hue on the head of a handful of plucked dried meadow grass....but I can't make that happen, and it's moments that happen a handful of times a month, or even a year (some years) at best.
I can't just ditch my phone and see that, or at least it is not the case yet. So I am still struggling with how to convert my fast into devotion, other than it is an expression of devotion in itself, but fasting in the wrong spirit can breed entitlement and resentment if you are not checked. I think I need some deeper business with him, to be honest. How to make this fast a feast?
Things still not really shifted with my handling of my phone. It is undoubtedly less than before but I am finding myself looking at it fairly regularly. Notifications don't help, and some of those are necessary, which makes it all the harder.
Watch this space.
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