No time to think …

Are you so busy you feel like you don’t have any time to think?

A lot of people feel that way. You likely feel that way because from the moment you awake, you click on the TV for the morning news while you rush to get ready for work …

You start up the car and immediately turn on the radio to check traffic, then slide in your new favorite CD …

Or …

The long wait in the doctor’s office becomes the perfect chance to play Angry Birds …

At the gym you have your favorite playlist blasting in your ears or you’re watching a favorite TV episode as you sweat on a treadmill …

At break and lunch you’re catching up with Twitter …

After work you’re catching up with Facebook …

In between you’re checking out the latest links and videos your friends emailed you …

And when you finally have a few minutes with the family, everyone has their hands filled with tablets and smartphones so they can catch up with texts …

We’ve given our think time to our electronics.

Not that many people ever really developed much of a habit of taking a little time each day to think, but we at least had those moments. Times when we didn’t always reach for the magazine while waiting in that doctor’s office or while the car was getting an oil change.

Sometimes we chose to use those unfilled minutes in our lives to think, if just a little.

Today, we’re cramming every minute with some means of entertaining ourselves by constantly having a smartphone, tablet, or laptop in our hands. Not only has this made us less personally interactive, but we’ve given that time to think, to be quiet, to listen, over to our electronics so we can be constantly entertained.

By taking away our think time, we’re less prepared for life. We think on the go, and that kind of thinking doesn’t always produce the best decisions. We’ve strayed far away from the peaceful position David describes in Psalm 131:2 when he states:

“Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself, like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk …”

By giving our think time to our electronics, we’ve forgotten how to calm and quiet ourselves. Instead, we fill those still moments with something that takes away any need to think, to just be still and be quiet.

When do you pause to think and be quiet?

Scotty