数字时代妨碍个人灵修的18种障碍 （中英文）
一份澳大利亚的研究发现，“如果牧师能只做一件事，帮助灵命成熟度各异的会众加深他们与基督的关系……他们就会激发鼓舞和装备会众阅读圣经 ——具体来说，思想圣经，寻求他们生命的意义。”
类似地，圣经接触中心这家机构发现，“在灵命方面，你能为自己所做的头号大事，就是一周读圣经四次或更多。经常读圣经，你的生命与那些不读经，或者读经次数少于这水平的人相比，看起来就完全不同。”
另外一份调查的结果写成了一本书，《1000家教会对灵命成长的发现》，它发现“思想圣经是最影响个人灵命的做法。”
但是读经和祷告这些个人灵命成长的基本要素，在数字时代是如此难以坚持。请思想我们尝试把祷告和读经变成我们生活固定一部份时面对的障碍。
面对如此的数字泛滥还进行个人灵修？肯定这是不可能的！
困难，但并非不可能，下次文章我要给你20个提示，帮助你如何在数字时代保持灵修生活。
作者：大卫•默里牧师（David Murray）
【英文原文】
Australian research found that “Ifpastors could do only one thing to help people at all levels of spiritualmaturity grow in their relationship with Christ…they would inspire, encourage,and equip their people to read the Bible—specifically, to reflect on Scripturefor meaning in their lives.”
Similarly, The Center for BibleEngagement discovered that “the number one thing you can do for yourselfspiritually is read the Bible four times a week or more. Read it thisfrequently, and your life looks completely different to those who don’t readthe Bible, or read it less than that.”
Another survey that resulted in thebook What 1000 Churches Reveal About Spiritual Growth, found that “Reflectionon Scripture is, by far, the most influential personal spiritual practice.”
And yet these basics of personalspirituality, Bible reading and prayer, are so difficult to maintain in thedigital age. Consider some of the obstacles we face in trying to make prayerand Bible reading a regular part of our lives:
1. Loss of boundaries: Working lifeis no longer limited to one place and certain hours, but we are always on fromfirst thing to last thing at night, always contactable, even on vacation. 75%of 25-29 year olds sleep with their phones. 25% of employees say that they feeltheir job security depends on them being available beyond normal working hours.
2. Loss of concentration: Tests ofoffice workers reveal that they check email 30-40 times an hour, although theythink it’s only 10-15 times an hour. 1 in4 people check their smartphone every 30 minutes, 1 in 5 every 10 minutes.
3. Loss of reading ability: Computerscrolling has resulted in much more scanning and speed-reading, the exactopposite of what’s required to profit from Bible reading.
4. Loss of meditation: Deep andprolonged thought on anything is very rare as minds flit from thing to thing tothing. We consume three times as much info as we did 50 years ago but thinkabout it much less.
5. Loss of memory: MemorizingScripture texts and references has become a lost art because we just need theodd word and a rough idea of location to Google the verse.
6. Loss of problem solving: We don’twork at answering questions, puzzling something through but, again, just Google it.
7. Loss of social connection: We don’tneed people’s help but just Google it. “In YouTube is my Father, Michael Anthony Adams describes how YouTubehas become his substitute father, teaching him things like how to tie a tie andfix a flat.
8. Loss of sleep: Excess and latetechnology use damages quality and length of sleep. Kids are consuming 11 hoursof media a day with huge impact on quality and quantity of sleep.
9. Loss of quiet: Constant beeps,buzzes, and updates reduce undisturbed time for the brain to rest. Unlike otherrevolutionary media like radio and TV, the Internet is ubiquitous. We never geteven a few minutes waiting in line with our own thoughts but turn to thesmartphone to fill it up.
10. Loss of friendships: Onlinefriendships have become more common than face-to-face. Loneliness has becomeone of the most common complaints of our day.
11. Loss of family time: Familymembers are constantly connected to outside world when in the home.
12. Loss of privacy: We don’t havemuch of a private life any more as so much lived out in public arena, makingmistakes very public too. Also, so much gathering of personal data is going onundetected.
13. Loss of time: So much time beingwasted, reducing time for devotional life and Christian service
14. Loss of purity: Multiple andmanifold temptations and all in the privacy of our own homes.
15. Loss of patience: We have grownused to instant results, but daily devotions are a long-term program withrarely or barely perceptible changes and improvements.
16. Loss of wisdom: We can accessmore knowledge via the Internet but the lack of possessing and owning that knowledgein our own minds prevents our brain making connections, discoveringconnections, seeing the bigger picture. How do we interpret information, organize it, process it, discriminate,draw conclusions from it, when all we know is in Google rather than in ourbrains?
17. Loss of humility: In This isyour brain on Google, Kate Shellnut wrote: “These days, we still say thingslike “I don’t know how” and “I can’t remember it,” but our ignorance rarelylasts long. Seconds later, it gets pulled up on Google or YouTube. Theinformation we don’t know is so close—quite literally at our fingertips—that weforget we don’t know it.”
18. Loss of routine: Regularity andrhythm are rare in people’s lives because of the unpredictable nature and hoursof jobs nowadays.
Personal devotions in the face ofsuch a digital deluge? Impossible surely!
Difficult, but not impossible, andtomorrow I’ll give you 20 tips for maintaining a devotional life in the digitalage.
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