Hope Beyond Smartphone Addiction

The Allure of the Screen and the Erosion of the Soul: Smartphones, Fascination and the Call to Contemplation by Tripp Fuller

https://processthis.substack.com/p/the-allure-of-the-screen-and-the-166?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true

This very extensive article tackles the topic of smartphones, and specifically social media, and the effect it has on every area of our lives, both individually and collectively, spiritually and socially. “Like an evolutionary adaptation that's outlived its usefulness, our relationship with smartphones has morphed from tool to tyrant.”

My mind is abuzz with thoughts about this. Fuller uses the word fascination to talk about the allure of the screen and its constant hold on us, and contemplation as a grounding state of being which involves slowing down, being present and noticing things around us and truly connecting with others in real life, heart to heart connection. 

He says: “After contemplation, we return to ordinary awareness feeling enriched, with new insights and connections. After fascination, we come come back feeling oddly depleted and dry”

Essentially he says, and I would agree, that smartphones, and especially social media take us captive and suck us dry of what is wholesome and I would suggest instead puts us on a reverberating loop of our own inner selfishness. 

As I read this I think of a profound essay written by C.S. Lewis called The Inner Ring, and while it may seem unrelated I see significant crossovers. In The Inner Ring, Lewis talks about how we crave to belong to a secretive, inner circle that promises to give us everything we’ve ever wanted- special recognition, connection and importance. I liken this to social media because it is a platform we feel we can be seen and promote our interests and connect with people we deem important. Also, Fuller alluded to the power to unfollow and block people, essentially building an online world of a revolving echo of the things we want to see and hear as opposed to the reality of living with challenges and difficulties presented to us in the real world and real relationships. Instead, Lewis says that in our pursuits we in fact discover a hollow, empty promise that is totally elusive and leaves us ultimately depleted. Lewis relates this craving to the peeling of an onion; in the end after the layers are peeled away, you are left with nothing. This connects with what Fuller says about how both our craving and consuming of smartphones and social media leave us feeling void.

So many things Fuller says offer us poignant imagery stunningly expressed to bring to life his own journey of discovery on this topic.

He says: “Smartphones promise unprecedented connectivity, but deliver a peculiar form of isolation. It's as if we've been sold a nutritional supplement that actually depletes essential vitamins.” I would add to this that when I am depleted of nutrition in my diet it is then that my body craves junk food which leaves me with nothing more than a tummy ache and a lousy night sleep. That is essentially what social media does- keeps promising a three course meal while leaving us with junky snacks that just lead to craving for the next junky snack, or in the case of social media the next scroll.

What Fuller refers to as contemplation, the contented state of being and resting, I personally would call a state of wonder. Wonder allows people to awaken to the eternal, to God, to amazement of all creation and to be aware of their smallness against the greatness: the greatness of God and the vastness of the world that surrounds them. It establishes a framework to give them a place in the world, a place that they can participate and belong. Wonder pulls people out of their self-absorbed heads into beauty, joy and adventure. Wonder and beauty go hand and hand. You cannot have one without the other. It is the state of awe in the goodness of God that can be visually seen in creation and aesthetically experienced in a thousand different ways.

It is no surprise we are drawn to screens. Our sinful natures are naturally drawn to anything that promotes us, our interests, what we believe to be important, and the smartphone in every way lets us put ourselves on our own pedestal. This has been the struggle since the fall and smartphones have given us a new platform to do this through. We are all addicts to sin, and this is a way we can live in our own comfortable, yet distorted, existence only ever doing the things we want to do because of the sheer abundance of choice presented to us on smartphones.

As Fuller says, there is another option. We don’t have to remain a slave to our devices but we can embrace and re-engage our energies in those things that lighten our load, fulfill us, and bring beauty into our world.

Tish Harrison Warren wrote a stunning book called The Liturgy of the Ordinary which talks about the beauty of routine and the everyday mundane tasks which God puts in all our lives and how He meets us in the ordinary rhythms and patterns of life. This is another way to consider how to disconnect from devices and find balance.  As Fuller says it’s not about completely cutting all ties with devices, they are here to stay, but learning to engage with it in a way that is healthy and balanced and ensures we are being filled with good things rather than being drained by it. Life is constantly taking from us, we need to be filled up again through restful avenues that fill our tanks. Jesus set the most beautiful example of regularly and often retreating from the crowds to rest and spend time with His Father. 

Finding the things that make our hearts sing is the way forward. Resting in the rhythms. Listening to the waves of the sea. Playing with your kids. Engaging in conversation with significant people in your world. Reading a book that points you to the beauty of God. Smartphone and social media addiction is not outside God’s love and ability to draw us back to Him. He is ready and willing to renew us and fill us anew from the fount that will never run dry. 

Enjoy your freedom

Galatians is a book in the Bible all about freedom. Paul urges us that God in Christ has indeed removed from us the burden of sin, and also bondage to the law. Law and  rule keeping… all these things were met in Christ. He did it all for us. He met the law, the obligations, the requirements… everything He met completely, and for all time… so we can be free. 

But are we?

We are harassed by a never ending burden of obligation and expectation. Where’s the freedom? 

In church they issue challenges, “How are you with God?” Or “How will you apply this to your life?” These questions subtly tell us that we must do more. We must strive harder to please God. 

But hang on a second… if we are truly free why are we being told to do more for God. Does God even need us to do anything for Him? He didn’t need us in the first place. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are, and have always been, wholly complete within the Godhead. 

God created us out of love and pure delight. He created us to know Him. He created us so we could share in His joy and love. He created us to have a childlike innocence to trust and enjoy Him. He created us from His fullness to lavish us with all good things. He created us so we could be creators, or “sub-creators” as Tolkien called it. We are not “the Creator”, but we create from that which God has already made.

God did not create us because He needed us. 

Something went horribly wrong at the fall. Our innocent trust fell away and was replaced by self- obsession, absorbed by the desire to be our own god. Us, created in His image, instead of reflecting the One who created us, wanted to take the glory and be acknowledged for all our gifts… as if we created ourselves. The self-made man or woman is nothing but a fallacy. 

Where’s the freedom?

“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1)

Freedom is found in Christ. At the cross of Jesus all was made right again before God. The law was met at the cross.

God created us out of beauty.

The fall stripped all the beauty away and left us festering in our own filth and mess. 

Jesus did the most beautiful thing this world has ever seen by dying a horrific death on a cross to save us from the burden of our sins and remove from us the need to meet the law. I am forgiven, you are forgiven. 

End of story. 

In The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe after Aslan, the Lion, comes back to life after a terrible death at the hands of the White Witch, he then takes the children on a “wild romp”. He plays with them, he rejoices with them, he laughs with them.

God desires that for us. Lay your burdens down. Go and enjoy your freedom. 

We All Need Beauty

So much in this life represents pain, hardship, drudgery, loss and responsibility. This life is not for the faint in heart. For many it’s not only years but decades of walking through trial after trial. 

Yet there is a beautiful gift of God which is available to us all when we have eyes to see it and ears to hear it. One word: beauty. The words that connect with beauty are delight, joy, creativity, laughter, freedom, connection, childlikeness. It’s the things that bring colour to life and awaken the soul to God Himself. 

The grace of God and beauty go hand in hand. The grace of God is the undeserved loving kindness of a Father who gives without measure. And beauty is everywhere. The beauty of a child’s laughter. The beauty of a kind word from another. The beauty of creating. The beauty of laughing with delight. The beauty of being loved and known by a friend. The beauty of being seen and heard. The beauty of belonging. The beauty of holding onto hope when life screams to give up.

Beauty is what makes life worth living. When the difficulties of life become so heavy, its beauty that restores us and brings us to the throne of grace before a God that wants nothing more than to give us, not only good gifts, but also His very self. He is the creative God that created beauty- He spoke it into being at the beginning of creation. 

This world threatens to rob us of every joy, every delight, and distort every good thing into something it shouldn’t be. Thank goodness that isn’t the end of the story. God didn’t leave us at the fall when all turned to chaos. He didn’t walk away. He still doesn’t abandon us when we continually sin every day. When our every thought is self-absorbed. 

Instead He draws us back to Himself over and over again through beauty. When all our energy is spent and nothing makes sense anymore may beauty be the thing to bring us back. May beauty awaken us to a God who loves us with abandon. A loving Father who delights in His children. That is where we truly belong. In His arms. In His presence. And there is nothing that sings a song of beauty more than that. 

Every sad thing will come untrue

Right now I’m thinking of a family coming to terms with a cancer diagnosis and the mental health challenges that come with that, I think of another household in which the torment of addiction threatens to pull everyone down with it, I think of a family burdened by an upcoming custody battle over a precious child, I think of a young father with an all consuming battle with chronic pain, I think of victims of arson who no longer feel safe, I think of a relationship breakup which has left significant heartache in its wake, I think of a woman who has been ostracised and shunned by her family….

And God weeps.

This world constantly sends the message that if we work hard enough, spend enough money, exercise enough, know the right people then we can live our best life now….. except when we can’t.

The church sends the message- both overtly and subtly- that if we pray hard enough, serve often enough, have enough faith, read the Bible often enough that God will shield us from suffering and remove significant burdens from our lives…. except when He doesn’t.

And God weeps.

I have no doubt one of Satan’s greatest ploys is to make us lose all hope, and sink into despair. To be plagued by depression, hopelessness and apathy. Essentially to forget that a good God exists.

And God weeps.

Yet our God is not a distant God who hides from us in our pain nor is He punishing us when life is hard. Our God is One who sits with us, weeps with us, collects our tears in His bottle and sings over us. 

Our God is not one who says “you need to do x, y & z before I will be with you, comfort you, love you”. He is the God who says “Come to me all who are weary, and I will give you rest, take my yoke upon you for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

He is not a God who is absent in hardships.  He is the God who pursues us constantly and never lets us go. Even the most seemingly minor heartache or frustration is something He sees and cares about. 

The thing that is wrong with the “live your best life now” motifs, and “God wants to heal and remove all your pain” anthems is the truth that this world is not as it should be- none of it. We live in a world that is a broken and dying world reverberating the effects of a fall at the garden of Eden. This world and our bodies are wasting away. We battle with our own sinfulness and suffer because of the sinfulness of others. Our bodies suffer with sickness and pain. 

“Everything sad will come untrue”, a statement uttered by Samwise Gamgee at the end of The Lord of the Rings, means that one day all will be made right again. Sometimes things are restored in this world, sometimes relationships heal, sometimes health is restored, sometimes people are released from addictions, but nothing will be made truly perfect till the world to come. We will live our best lives there, not in self-absorbed glory, but in continual worship to the only One worth worshipping “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world”. 

The questions remain in this troubled world of heartache and pain but there is such abundant hope in a Saviour who gave everything so we wouldn’t suffer the effects of our sins and opened the way to spend all eternity in the safety of His presence forevermore. He didn’t leave us in our struggles but gave us both the Word of God and comfort of the Holy Spirit. The book of Psalms gives us the words to say when we don’t have them. We can repeat them, shout them, sing them back to Him. The Psalms are God’s way of giving us permission to ask questions, the “Why’s” and “How long” questions which are repeated over and over again throughout the Psalms which are full of lament and grieving. 

The final line in the book, Till we have faces by C.S. Lewis says “Before your face all questions die away”. When we at last stand in His presence nothing else will matter because all the sad things will truly be made untrue and we will be able to say with every ounce of our being “To him who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honour and glory and power, for ever and ever.” Amen. 

Yellowface by Rebecca F. Kuang

Described as a satirical look into the literary world and its relationship with the various social media platforms, this book inspires many thoughts to explore. Told from the perspective of Juniper Hayward (known as June) this book started with the sudden death of a friend, Athena Liu, who she has a very conflicted relationship with. June watches Athena die in front of her and is unsuccessful to get help quick enough to save her. June isn’t overly concerned about Athena’s death, in fact it seems more like relief since she no longer has to compare herself to the “perfect” Athena. June finds herself facing a unique opportunity, prior to Athena dying she, Athena, reveals to June her latest manuscript for a book which will undoubtedly succeed. June’s overwhelming desire for stardom prompts her to take the manuscript and rework it to publish under her own name. The attention and fame that comes from the success goes straight to June’s head. She’s finally famous and has people wanting to talk to her, know her, celebrate her. In her attempt to follow in Athena’s narcissistic footsteps she shows her own narcissistic desires. She squashes anyone who gets in her way and makes sure people know she is someone worth worshipping. 

“Everybody lies”, a statement repeated often by Gregory House in the long running TV show, “House”. He’s not far wrong. An innate part of our sinful make-up includes lying, deceiving people about our perceived innocence and trying to weasel our way out of consequences when we’ve genuinely been in the wrong. This book is a fascinating look into the universal human mind, and if we look deep enough into our own hearts we will find, in varying degrees, exactly the same thoughts as June Hayward with her jealousy, need to feel special and going to any length to make herself look innocent when people call her out etc. She is completely narcissistic in her outlook, only ever concerned about herself, and no one else. 

It’s also an interesting look into another part of the human condition. Fame and how people attach themselves to anyone considered famous, until they fall in some way, then they are abused, shunned and crushed. I have no doubt this has been the case since the beginning of time (since the fall that is) yet social media have heightened these responses in an extremely toxic manner. God’s grace is always on offer to everyone at times when we are “found out” for our transgressions and when we consider the Lord’s Prayer we remember the words “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us”. When we truly know our own deep failures and the humility of accepting God’s unwavering and complete forgiveness then we can also be free to graciously allow others their own failures and hope they will find the freedom that can only come through God’s grace and overwhelming kindness. 

This book gives a unique insight into the ups and downs of the literary world but far deeper than that it gives us insight into the human soul which oozes with every type of selfish intent. Paraphrasing an old quote “For every look at me, I take 10 looks at Christ”. He is the only One worth looking to, and He has taken our every mess, every sin, every ugliness upon Himself and washed us clean- so God will only ever see us like the purest of snow because of Christ’s sacrifice for us.  

This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

 This book is a sweeping epic masterpiece which gripped my heart from the first word and took me and my emotions captive. 

Based in the summer of 1932 in the middle of the depression, four orphaned children Albert, Odie, Mose and Emmy escape the grips of Thelma Brickman, the woman they nickname “the Black Witch” who torments them at the Native American school they go to. At the tender ages of 16 & 12 (Mose’s age is unknown), Albert, Odie and Mose have suffered the deaths of parents and horrific abuse at the hands of the adults at the Native American school where they live. Albert and Odie are brothers who despite not even being Native Americans, ended up there after their father’s murder. Young Emmy, aged 6, ends up orphaned when a tornado leaves her mother dead. The wicked Thelma Brickman says she will adopt Emmy which prompts the young boys to take action to save her from the grip of the Black Witch and begin the adventure of all adventures running away in a canoe along the Mississippi River. 

In the course of this journey they were constantly being chased by Thelma and Clyde Brickman, the police, and anyone wanting the reward offered for their return, and they quickly learned who to trust and who not to trust. They take on wily ways as a means of survival, constantly trying to avoid people bent on harming them. Encountering countless people along the way they also find people who would show them untold kindness and give them food or a place to sleep. They came to see heartache and brokenness at every corner, adding to their own misery, and the belief that God is a tornado who comes and strips away all that is good and right in this world. 

This theme of God being a tornado continues throughout the book as Odie (who is narrating the story) tries to make sense of, and process, the unbearable hardships he has experienced himself, and witnesses others experiencing. I felt this so deeply in my bones since I have often held the belief that I will lose all that is dear to me. I lived this journey with them, aching for them, aching for the brokenness they witnessed around them, aching for the brokenness I see in the real world. From the first word of this book there is such a deep gut wrenching ache, but there is not only ache, there is also hope.

They encounter a travelling healing mission that goes from town to town and Sister Eve, the healer, wins all their hearts with her striking singing voice and warm, caring nature. She embraces them all with such kindness that they are drawn to her, which makes me think of Galadriel in LOTR. Sister Eve possesses a gift at reading the longing and desires of each heart and she sees and understands each child and their deepest desires. Odie’s heart, she said, was easiest to read, he longed for home; somewhere to call home. She gives them money for their journey and lets them go despite wanting them to remain with her and her travelling mission.

A longing for home is drenched in such raw emotion and is steeped in a desire for belonging, something common to everyone. Young Odie had lost every person he had ever loved, apart from his three friends, yet he constantly held on to hope that there was a home waiting for him somewhere. I liken this to a longing for heaven, when this world hurts and hurts and hurts again, yet there is a constant ache and longing for heaven. I know this longing so well. 

Albert and Odie discover they have an Aunt in Saint Louis and intend it to be their destination, however, they end up finding a family who offers them a safe place to live, and offers Albert and Mose work. Albert, Mose and Emmy agree they want to stop travelling and remain with these people they’ve found, but Odie’s desire for home draws him on and despite heartbroken he departs from his closest companions, only confiding in one new friend about leaving.

Odie rides in boxcars on railways till he lands in Saint Louis. He finds his Aunt Julia and initially it is enormously awkward and strange between them. He is shocked and disappointed to find out she is a prostitute who runs a brothel. When he realises and understands why men come and go constantly from the house, full of young women, he is once again bitterly disappointed and hurt that nothing is as it should be and every adult he encounters comes with such messed up lives. Surprisingly, Odie crosses paths with Sister Eve, the healer, who once again suggests he join her on her mission if he chooses not to stay with his Aunt. He returns to tell his Aunt Julia that he was leaving only for her to shock him to his core with the truth that she is in fact his mother and she has loved him and longed for him all his life, but because of the life she lived she gave him to her sister to bring him up properly. 

Thelma and Clyde Brickman discover Odie at his newly found mother’s house and a showdown takes place between Thelma and Julia, who as it turns out have previous connections and animosity between them, as they were prostitutes together many years before. Thelma admitted to murdering Odie’s father (his uncle who he believed to be his father), and she then pulled out a gun and shot Odie in the leg. Julia ran at Thelma and they both fell out a window which killed Thelma and left Julia paralysed. 

About this time Albert, Mose and Emmy finally found Odie, and his mother, and were reunited together. They began a new life with Julia once she had recovered.

This Tender land raises so many questions about the ugliness in this world and whether there is a good God truly there who loves and cares for us. It may not directly answer those questions yet at the same time it answers them in spades. I feel like I’ve just read one of the greatest theology books of my life despite this being a work of historical fiction. 

Some really significant events in the book included crossing paths with a scary looking man called Big Jack who essentially kept the children prisoner and made them work for him. They developed a warm relationship with him, but Odie suspects Jack had murdered his family who he mentions from time to time, and is wary of him. When Jack threatened violence on Emmy Odie pulls out a gun he took from Clyde Brickman and shoots Jack in the chest. They escape after that and Odie carries the weight of guilt for murdering him, especially because he liked him (he had unintentionally killed one of the evil men who inflicted much abuse on them while escaping from the school also, which also weighed on his mind). Later in the book he encounters Big Jack again who is very much alive and he thanks Odie immensely for shooting him because it triggered him to consider his life and turn things around and he told Odie he had started to repair his relationship with his wife and child (he obviously didn’t murder them!). 

Another very significant story of redemption involved an alcoholic who had lost everything his family had and they were homeless and suffering because of his addiction. Odie had fallen in love with his daughter, Maybeth. For a reason even unknown to Odie himself, he gave all his money to the man (which Sister Eve had given to them) and told him to take his family to where they need to be. The next morning the man hadn’t returned to their tent and the family assumed he had found money to waste on alcohol once again but instead he had bought petrol to put in their car and gifts for each of his family and he entrusted the rest of his money to his mother-in-law to look after so he didn’t get tempted to use it on alcohol. Odie offered a second chance to this man and his family, and he went on to marry Maybeth when they were grown up.

A reflection of this book in no way does justice to how spectacular it is. It felt like every sentence had such profound meaning. Every person they encountered brought greater depth. Every broken soul they crossed paths with opened new opportunities for empathy and understanding of the human condition. The hurt, the pain, the devastating blows and setbacks were also balanced with such beauty. Beauty in deep human connection, beauty in simple kindnesses, beauty in redemption, and beauty in holding onto hope when life screams to give up.