“It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts…” – Screwtape to Wormwood (ScrewTape Letters, C.S. Lewis)
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Dark Distraction Takes Its Toll
We’re committed now to shallow…
We’ve got time for little more.
Endless channels now for surfing….
Contemplation?...What a bore!
We read memes and post emojis,
We fire off our sacred texts.
Mindless games we call our “calling”
‘Til we move on to “What’s next?’
We love chasing our “Whatevers”,
Always doing, never done.
“Sabbath Rest”?....(I heard the term once…)
Sorry, friend, I have to run!
We’ve got endless social issues
That we simply must address.
There’s a world that needs our saving!
We’ve got no sins to confess.
Mesmerized by “Mindless Busy”
High tech, screen-shot reveries.
We saw nature once on TV…
Stars and sunsets, flowers,…. trees!
We’ve got “High Speed Good Intentions”1,
Surface water bugs in time.
Self-fulfillment’s our addiction...
It’s the way we do divine.
We’re all grounded, son, in free-fall…
Idol notions flying by!
Some say, “Read Ecclesiastes!”…
“What’s the point?” is our reply.
* * *
Lord, have mercy, please upon us!
Clarify what’s now so blurred.
Yes, reveal the Life Eternal…
Twenty-Twenty Truth… The Word.
1 “We must have some room to breathe. We need freedom to think and permission to heal. Our relationships are being starved to death by velocity. No one has the time to listen, let alone love. Our children lay wounded on the ground, run over by our high-speed good intentions. Is God now pro-exhaustion? Doesn’t He lead people beside the still waters anymore? Who plundered those wide-open spaces of the past, and how can we get them back? There are no fallow lands for our emotions to lie down and rest in.” – Richard A. Swenson