The Holy Present of 4:50 a.m.

So far, Emma Kate has been a fantastic sleeper. But one morning last week after Kelly nursed her, she just wasn't going back to sleep. So at 4:50 a.m. I took her downstairs to let Kelly get a little rest and see if I could get Emma Kate to sleep some more.

As I walked my little girl around downstairs, I wondered what I could do to make this time a little less bleary-eyed. Get my Ipod? Watch t.v? Come down to the office and take a look at e-mail or check the sports scores on-line? Try to read a book?

It hit me as I considered these options that media (including books) is an odd thing. What media allows us to do is create our own reality, at least temporarily. We watch a movie, read a book or listen to music and suddenly things that aren't really there become foremost in our mind. We cease to become present to the things immediately present and become more attentive to things that are far away.

What is crucial for the Christian to consider in all of this is that the present is most often the place where the Holy Spirit is at work and inviting us to enter into that work. There is a "holy now" that we are constantly being invited to enter into. Sometimes (not always) our constant clamoring to escape that now and to plug into some other temporary reality distracts us from what God would have us to do at this very moment--the driver to be courteous to, the neighbor to build a relationship with, the student sitting next to us in class, the co-worker to invite to lunch.

At the very least, our culture's obsession with entertainment and need for constant stimulation (and the Christian's buy-in to all of this) handicaps us in our ability to be tuned into the Holy Present where God is at work.

This does not mean that media or escape is always bad. It just means that we must be thoughtful, intentional, obedient, as we consider our use of and engagement with media and entertainment. It is a blessing (I enjoyed several hours of football this weekend!) that can easily turn into a curse.

So I passed on the Ipod, the morning news, e-mail, and the like at 4:50 a.m. And instead, I walked with my new little girl. I prayed over her. I asked God to bless our family and our home. I went on to pray for the retreat this past weekend and other things that were on my heart. And before long she was asleep. I laid her down in her bouncy seat, I laid down on the couch, and I entered into a very different type of holy present.