Reconnected

I read quite a bit - usually an average of four books per month on top of my daily Bible reading. And it's not often that I use this space to review or to recommend a book, but this one is important. 

I want you to read this book. 

The book is Reconnected by Carlos Whitaker, who is fairly well-known in many Christian circles (and in social media circles). Carlos admits to being a man who spent way too much time on his phone every day, always having a reason why he had to be. But he worried about what it might be doing to his brain, let alone his life, so he set about figuring out how his being would change if he completely unplugged. 

For two weeks, he lived at a monastery. He lived his life by the sacred rhythms of prayer, silence, and solitude. He was guided by bells, by monks, by nature, and by wonder. He learned to notice things that he'd completely forgotten about because they were obstacles to the next dopamine hit from his phone. And he learned...that he didn't need that dopamine. 

Then, he spent two weeks living on an Amish farm and learning the rhythms of manual labor and connecting with the land. He broke some of the stereotypes that had built up in his mind about what other persons and other belief systems and other ways of living must be life, and he learned to really relate to folks again...as well as building up a few new callouses on his hands. 

Finally, he spent three weeks back at home with his family still not connected to the rest of the world. His phone was still far away, in someone else's possession. 

So...did it change his brain? Read the book and find out. 

But it changed his soul. And you probably could already figure that out. 

We live in a world that tells us that we have to be hyperconnected, but do you realize how new hyperconnection is as a human phenomenon? I remember back in the 90s (yes, the 1990s) when my family got our first mobile phone. It came in a bag the size of a lunch box, and it still had a big cord attached to it. Prior to that, we were on our own. And you can forget the internet altogether. 

And...our brains worked differently. Our hands worked differently. Our souls worked differently. There was something about having to actually engage the world around you that shaped the way that we lived, whereas today's human beings have all kinds of opportunities to disengage...and it seems they take every one of them. And even create a few more. 

I hear all the time from folks who say they couldn't imagine living without their phone, even in the same breath with which they curse it. They hate the way they're living, but they don't know how to do it any other way. It seems absolutely impossible to function in this world without being connected to it all the time. But...is it really that impossible? Is it really that unfathomable? 

Read the book. Seriously. It will give you hope. 

And if you need a closer example, come back for a few days and we'll talk some more about this idea.