Topic: Genuine connection.

“Whenever you go out, walk together, and when you reach your destination, stay together,” wrote one of my favorite theologians many years ago. It speaks just as powerfully now as it did in the 300s when he wrote it.

The idea revolves around genuine connection. The irony of our day is that technology has connected the world but simultaneously torn us asunder. The image that invariably comes to mind is when I am in the nation’s airports. I love to watch people. And what I am about to write is the absolute truth: I will put down the book I am reading between flights and watch the people for minutes at a time. Almost always, no one is making eye contact. Why? Because their eyes are bent downward onto an illumined screen. It is either a phone or a laptop. Just try the experiment yourself next time you have the opportunity. People will sit right next to one another, but not talk. They will put their heads down and scroll, scroll, scroll. Sometimes I think if someone were to burst into flames, others would not extinguish the flames but hit the record button on their gadgets and post it on the internet.

Technology has been a massive blessing in so many ways, of course. But my prayer is that we don’t jettison the human connection that is essential if we are to live lives of depth and not just breadth.

Encouragement: Technology comes from the Greek word  techne (τέχνη). Its corollaries are art, skill, and craft. May we be a people who have the wisdom to know that our gadgets should connect rather than divide us, because human and divine connections are ways in which the Author of life blesses his creation.