I am a flawed human.
A statement like this is generally meant to generate commiseration, so did I succeed? Like others, I have my own testimony when it comes to suppressing habitual cravings. Suffering from things such as sugar cravings, I have been able to master by going cold turkey. Going to the must-see, floozy movies in the theatre, I quit cold turkey. Buying exclusively from membership companies, cold turkey. These, along with many other compulsive tendencies that I've fevered through in my lifetime, I've been able to drop in the mailbox with enough postage to not have them returned to sender. But there is an area where I have struggled. I have put my nose to the grindstone, trying to outsmart the so-called smart device, the pop-technology of the most recent decade that has swallowed whole markets and become the middleman for everything, from telecommunication to the internet. I have my set of standards and methods when it comes to fending off other frequent forms of compulsive behavior, but the evil that pandemics throughout the internet, exposing its face in mainstream movies, music, politics, and more, has lassoed me more than once by way of this all-in-one, most convenient, communication device. Having found a simple nostrum for this tenacious devil, and having found my nostrum effective, I share it here.
Make a commitment to crossing the threshold phone free.
Let me allegorically explain what I mean by the threshold:
The white painted church had bold red carpet and decorative windows. Nothing stain-glassed, but the quaint chapel room, complete with wooden benches and choir stands, had no need of any more beautifying that spring day. There behind the audience in lovely white with two bridesmaids was the bride of any man's dreams. The engagement was shorter than most had expected, and the grandmothers, parents, and friends looked on in wedding excitement. A future brother-in-law and a nephew joined the audience after having performed their last assigned ushering tasks, and the groom's sister, sitting at the upright piano, began performing her soon to be sister-in-law's wedding march request. Then like an uncontainable breeze had finally settled in the room, all watched and were witness to the "I do" that was spoken by each, the bride and the groom. Cheered by the loving crowd and with the blessing of their college pastor, the one who had just married them, the new pair descended the platform to escape down the center aisle. Side by side, without a clue or much organization, the bride and groom stood and thanked and hugged their loved ones, one by one, as the wedding guests filtered out onto the classic front steps of the small-town church. After the congratulating embraces, the couple rejoined hands and with the embarrassment that a couple feels when all attention and thousands of soapy bubbles begin floating their way, they descended the worn church steps and climbed through the decorations that covered their black, four-door, get-away car. Oh, the day was glorious. Smiles and sun raining, bouquet and boutonniere tossed, best-man's speech delivered—metaphorical Rubik's cube and all—and the happy Hutchisons were zooming to their new, rent-free home situated on the back of twelve grassy acres in Espanola, Florida. Many years had the groom waited and many prayers had led up to this defining moment, where the bride consented to crossing this clear and defined threshold in the arms of her husband. Cherished in his arms, her joy was unmistakable, and they together entered their private chamber where they consecrated their marriage with the approval of all, YHWH, family, and friends alike. All the baggage and past romances, all the present distractions of in-laws being in town and the wedding reception cleanup, and all the future worries of graduation and career options were left outside of the room that day. How meaningful and reminiscent that image is to me still.
It's this intentional, crossing of the threshold that I challenged myself with when it came to me breaking my trance on my mobile mountain of tech. There is a verse that hints at the importance of crossing thresholds (Deuteronomy 6:9). The importance of these words is obvious, coming after the greatest commandment and being in reference to all of YHWH's commands (Deut 6:1-9). There's also a captivating illustration, a historical one, that describes the importance of a door as it pertains to keeping out evil (Genesis 19:1-11). Here, an abominably behaving city, the entire city of people minus one, whose actions against YHWH were great (Gen 18:20), were kept out of a home by a blocked threshold and a door. Lot, the protagonist of the story, went out to address the evil, but the angels of YHWH, the heroes, prevented the evil from entering and further hindered the wicked crowd outside by striking them with blindness. We could further this argument for blockading demons, false idols, from the house with Deuteronomy 7:26. If you consider how idols have changed in form with changes in technology and how these idols today speak to their worshipers, the device that is sold far and wide for calling home, the brick phone, has become the medium whereby graven images and their priests and prophets communicate. Ironically, many of these present-day idols still bear their original names, and there is a good, Biblical reason to not mention those names (Exodus 23:13).
With the promiscuity and sexual defilements that are readily accessible on every device and stream from the airwaves that enter the home without restriction, I have half-entertained the idea of painting the walls of our house with Faraday paint so that my house would be more like Lot's house in Sodom and Gomorrah, repelling the evil. Yet, this behavior is to the extreme and addresses my trouble only in part.
The sin behavior that I am looking to expunge like a stain remover and to jail like a US Marshall is in me. I have learned from experience that it is the craft of an addict to find a way to feed their wickedness, and going cold turkey only works for a sparse few, blessed souls. The gospel of Yeshua is a better remedy. Yeshua's salvation follows a baptism of repentance as John the Baptist taught, and this salvation is closely drafted like a racing stock car by obedience to the commands of YHWH (Matthew 3:1-6, Numbers 5:6-7). Any full-blown addict that has submitted to the church in this way will have a cyclical testimony like mine, which I'll admit exalts YHWH's level of patience and mercy but is short of the final step in forgiveness, the step of go and sin no more (John 8:1-11, Hebrews 10:1-31, Num 15:27-41). The challenge of "sin no more" heralds freedom, Christian freedom, but Christian freedom requires disciplined obedience, and this is where creative tools and sometimes odd and restricting boundaries become beneficial. One boundary that I have found good, good like the light on the second day of creation, is to cross the threshold of a bedroom and the threshold of a bathroom phone free.
Does it eliminate the evil? No, but it highly restricts it, and like the wisdom that descends from above, in order to share righteousness with our children, we had best avoid being fatherly hypocrites (James 3:17-18).
Keep fathering your kids (phone free),
JH
Photos by Uncle Al Jemery, all rights reserved.
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