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Are you ready for Christmas? During the season of Advent – which annually begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas and leads up to December 25 – followers of Jesus traditionally look for ways to prepare themselves for the coming of God’s own Son into the world. Throughout December we’ll ponder ways that we can ready ourselves to receive Jesus, once again, into our own hearts.
Three years ago this fall, a dozen professors at Lawrence University in Wisconsin launched a brand-new course with a provocative title.
It was called “Doing Nothing.”
No one was surprised that more than 50 students enrolled for this optional, one-credit, pass/fail class. What collegian could resist the opportunity to earn an academic credit for not lifting a finger?
The reality behind the title was a bit more complicated than that, of course. As Constance Kassor, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, has since noted, she and fellow faculty members had become concerned by the number of students who seemed stressed out, exhausted, and hopelessly dependent on their smartphones.
What if they could offer a class that spotlighted specific ways to help students turn down the rpms of their lives?
“Doing Nothing” turned out to be a smash hit.
Students learned how to slow down, sleep better, unplug from technology, and connect with others and the world around them in more attentive, mindful ways.
As part of the class, Helen Boyd Cramer led a simulation in which students were “marooned” in a doctor’s office waiting room – with no Wi-Fi. No phones, no tablets, no screens. How could they possibly get through the better part of an hour? One by one, the participants picked up magazines. Or talked to an actual person sitting nearby. Or just appreciated, for a stretch of minutes, what our culture seems to despise: down time.
Most Americans would flunk a course called “Doing Nothing.”
And December is the month when most of us would get our lowest marks. Sadly, it’s entirely possible to be so immersed in the spectacle and turbulence of Christmas activities that we never get around to spending time with God.
Smartphones have revolutionized communication and connectedness. They are also primary threats to our mental and social health. Recent studies indicate that 89% of Americans check their phones within 10 minutes of waking up in the morning. At least 60% of us take our phones to bed with us, as if we are comforted by the presence of this 21st century version of a stuffed animal.
Compulsive attentiveness to flat screens has been correlated with anxiety, loneliness, impaired relationships, and lack of sleep.
Even though psychologists have stopped short (so far) of classifying what might be called “phone addiction,” anyone with a smartphone knows how hard it is to look away.
And that leaves us with precious little time for conversation with God, conversation with others, and just plain sitting still.
Last June I had the chance to take the trip of a lifetime to the Galapagos Islands. A few days before my departure, I mused to all of you that I was still wrestling with the possibility of writing Morning Reflections while cruising with family members and a team of scientists on a National Geographic boat.
Later that same day I received more than 225 emails from readers. Every single one of them said the same thing:
Please…just stop! Abandon the idea of writing. Pay attention to the wonders right in front of you, which you’ll probably never have the chance to see again.
That was wonderful counsel. Now I’m offering the same advice to you:
Please…just stop!
Advent derives from the Latin word adventum, which means “coming.” Every year followers of Jesus are encouraged to ponder the meaning of Jesus’ coming into the world at Bethlehem.
Such pondering can only happen if we – without guilt – abandon our efforts to be more productive, to cross off every item on our to-do lists, and to “see and do more this Christmas than ever before.”
In the end, the only thing really worth seeing in the weeks ahead is the face of the One who speaks quietly to us in music, in the Word, and in sheer stillness.
So, plan a technology-free day.
Or a technology-free weekend.
Turn off the news.
Say No to an invitation to go out and “do something.”
Stay home to read a book, talk with others, or sit by a fireplace.
Give God space to work in your life.
There’s a reason It Came Upon a Midnight Clear is one of the world’s favorite Christmas carols. Verse one ends, “The world in solemn stillness lay to hear the angels sing,” and verse four closes with the words, “O rest beside the weary road, and hear the angels sing.”
This Advent, may God help you know the grace of experiencing those words for yourself.