At the mountain of God, Horeb, Elijah came to a cave where he took shelter.
Then the LORD said to him, “Go outside and stand on the mountain before the LORD; the LORD will be passing by.”
A strong and heavy wind was rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the LORD—but the LORD was not in the wind.
After the wind there was an earthquake—but the LORD was not in the earthquake.
After the earthquake there was fire—but the LORD was not in the fire.
After the fire there was a tiny whispering sound.
When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went and stood at the entrance of the cave.
REFLECTION
When we live in a time and space where all the answers are at our fingertips, and all the forms of entertainment are available to us in a matter of seconds, boredom and creativity are the first things that right away disappear.
It began when we started being overbooked: work, kids after school programs, long commuting time, etc. We started to be exhausted all the time.
Then the smartphone revolution began. Quietly at first, then the young people coined the words "brain rot" or "doom scrolling", this is, when we scroll on our phones endlessly without really paying attention to anything. This is also called passive reading, where we are not paying true attention and don't use our critical thinking.
There are people that spend their nights and whole weekends playing video games: World or Warcraft come to mind. When massive multiplayer games like Fortnite became available in our phones, then the children got hooked. At the same time, streaming platforms became popular, specially when they dumped a series whole season in a day. So now we got "binge watching".
Now there is a whole world of people that bring and stare at their phones at every minute of the day: We use it as an alarm to wake us up; keep track of scheduled appointments on our calendar and what appointment is up next. We look at it to entertain us while we are on a phone call; we connect it to other smart devices such as our watches to let us know of incoming texts or calls, or fitness averages. We ask it questions or tell it things nobody else knows about. As we consume media, we fall asleep staring at it.
While this is happening, life passes by.
German people have an interestingly curious term for this effect, roughly translated it is called "hobbyless behavior". It is basically what it used to be called "idle hands".
In the interminable storm of information and entertainment we receive all the time, can God find a space to talk to us?
The challenge many young people talk about is "touching grass". This is, step out of the screen and interact with the real world. Blaise Pascal said that "All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone".
Now, we do have to find time for leisure. And leisure is not about "doing nothing at all", nor slotting. It is turning off that go-go-go, and interact with our surroundings.
Some people read books, ride bikes, participate in a sport, go get some coffee, solve puzzles, paint, crochet, do carpentry, etc.
What would happen if we went to an Adoration Chapel and sat before the Blessed Sacrament for 15 minutes?
I know that when I do that, at first, the tsunami of thoughts of all the things I need to do keep crashing inside my mind. If I extend those 15 minutes to 30, I slowly start to feel less overwhelmed. Instead of rushing over prayers, I start to be still. After 60 minutes it is even better. Regardless of how long I stay, it is nice to sit quietly, and just be with Our Lord.
If you are fortunate enough to live near where Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament happens, stop by. It can be 5 minutes. Like when we say hello to a friend, even though we cannot spend too much time with them, it is still nice to see each other. Stop for 15. Stop for more. Our Lord patiently waits for us in there, in the quiet that we so much crave and need.
A nice reflection! Thank you.