In it, not of it . . .

I’ve been ruminating on a strange phenomenon that I witnessed when we were on our recent vacation in Florida. While we were walking through the various parks, looking for fun to be had and trying to stay hydrated, I frequently saw people walking around plugged into their iPods (or other such portable music device). Now, this is something I have seen I don’t know how many times at work, at the gym, and on the streets. I must admit that I use my iPod while working out at the YMCA. The point is to provide a distraction from the surroundings so I can go into my own little world of weight lifting and aerobic exercise, and I just plain love music. I would suppose that most people walking around with an mp3 player (or the archaic Walkman and Discman) have similar reasons. What I found strange was that these people were in the midst of an amusement park and were seeking detachment through their own personal entertainment source!

What got me thinking on this was the obvious comparison to what Jesus told us in John 15:18-19 and in John 17:16 and how we, too, walk in a world from which we are trying to separate ourselves. I don’t know if I have much else to say on the subject, other than I found this a striking visual of how we should look at we walk through this world, finding ourselves entangled in a place that has all the nicest, most desirable distractions but getting our feed from somewhere else entirely.

Tags: Christian living, Christianity , religion