How connected are you? These days staying connected is easy – whether we’re talking about keeping connections alive with our families and friends, or knowing what is going on in the world, or checking on our work emails, or homework requirements – all of it can be done from the palm of our hand. Through WhatsApp, Snapchat, Outlook, multiple news channels and apps for just about anything there is no need for us to miss out. We know so much, and can answer just about any question, all with just a twitch of our thumbs. There’s no need for us to wonder what bird we just heard, or to take notes of a new wildflower so that we can check at the local library what it may have been – just take a photo and swipe up – the answer will be there!

And of course, these connections are wonderful, knowing that you can talk to a sibling or a parent no matter where they are is a privilege that wasn’t so readily or cheaply available even twenty years ago. But are they really helping us? They say that everyone remembers what they were doing when they heard that Elvis Presley had died, or when President Kennedy was shot – but do we remember where we were when we heard about our late Queen Elizabeth II? And, as many cathedrals still point out when you enter, ‘we hope you’ll hear the word of God when you’re here, but we don’t think he’ll be contacting you by mobile phone’ – so, is our hyper-connectiveness really a good thing?

Being connected comes with responsibility, we need to remember that looking up the name of that wildflower takes data – and that requires energy and water. We need to think about the fact that an SMS is not as meaningful as hearing a voice, and both are a long way from having a hug or sharing a smile. And, above all else, the more we connect to our material world, the less likely we are to hear our Lord. Perhaps, this weekend, we could look for ways to switch off and open our hearts and minds to the actual physical world around us. This is the world that matters, let us photograph that tree without looking up its name, or, even better, let’s leave the phone at home and paint the tree instead. Maybe this weekend we can pledge to take less photos but more notice, perhaps we can promise to call instead of text, and, in doing so, can we open our hearts and minds to our Lord? Without the constant noise of technology, maybe this will be the weekend when we feel closer than ever to God’s plan for us.

John 15:5 (ESV) I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.