Why do we keep reaching for it?
reflections from Hannah Brencher's "The Unplugged Hours"
The devices we hold make it so we never have to slow down, be alone with ourselves, or find a way to sit in the uncomfortable stillness that is supposed to come with daily life…
When we keep reaching for a device, we are able to keep moving, to live an unexamined life. We are able to continue on without having to hear our internal dialogue, deal with our mess, or be alone with ourselves. We don’t have to sit in uncomfortable silence or stillness because the digital world is ever-moving around us. We can tap into that digital space and escape.
The space between comfort and discomfort is a vast valley of distraction. We seek to live in comfort but it is a place of numb stagnation. Making it through distraction to discomfort is the road to holistic healing and restoration. We actually experience the fullness of life Jesus promised us as we lean into this undistracted reality of discomfort.
Brencher continued:
Our uncomfortable feelings—the ones we most want to escape—often yield the most significant growth moments.
It might be a healthy exercise to pause every time you’re tempted to pick up your phone and ask the question that inspired the title of this post: