mgpcpastor's blog

This is for publication in our local paper.

It might be the greatest moment of the American football season: with no time on the clock quarterback Aaron Rodgers darts around under heavy defensive pressure, gets clear for a moment and then heaves the ball over sixty yards downfield where one of his own receivers claims a catch and a game winning touchdown.
The crowd goes wild. Except for the guy who has the best seat in the stadium, right at the endzone where the catch is taken. Instead of seeing the play of the year he’s looking at his phone. Oops.
Contrast that with the current tendency to view an important event through a phone camera screen rather than actually look at it. Parents at a performance featuring their children or crowds watching a celebrity come by will be looking at the device in their hands rather than the actual event. Maybe you’ve seen people photographing their dinner and posting it online before they eat it.
As Christmas and other functions this time of year come by are we really present in the moments of celebration, or are we there but distant, busy trying to record a memory we’re not really participating in?
Now, I’ll confess I’m more likely than most to be found wandering around looking at my phone, posting pictures of vanilla slices, or being distracted. But I don’t think it’s just me.
If the occasion is really important just being there isn’t enough, we should be truly present to enjoy it for what it fully represents. The significance of being there isn’t measured in a faultless video, great picture, or number of social media likes; it’s significant because we experienced it. We can record and share an event we attended with others, but it can cost us the richness of the emotional connection that comes from personal engagement.
It is important to record important events. It is more important to create memories rich in emotional experience.
This Christmas, take time to simply enjoy treasured moments that will live in your memory.
Christmas is a time when God became present among his people in a new way. The birth of Jesus, the incarnation, speaks of God fully experiencing everything that humanity experiences. God was always present; in Jesus God has experienced everything that we’ve experienced for himself.
His understanding of us and our trials and triumphs is personal. It is one of the reasons why Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus. God is not unknowable to us. And we are known by God. Jesus is God with us.
God’s presence with us in Jesus is reflected in our choice to be fully present with others. Being there is important. Being fully present and sharing the moment is more important still in building relationships that last.