A Mile Wide

Fostering time alone with Jesus who loves us

03/23/2018

Jermiah 20:10-13 I hear the whisperings of many: "Terror on every side! Denounce! let us denounce him!" All those who were my friends are on the watch for any misstep of mine. "Perhaps he will be trapped; then we can prevail, and take our vengeance on him." But the LORD is with me, like a mighty champion: my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph. In their failure they will be put to utter shame, to lasting, unforgettable confusion. O LORD of hosts, you who test the just, who probe mind and heart, Let me witness the vengeance you take on them, for to you I have entrusted my cause. Sing to the LORD, praise the LORD, For he has rescued the life of the poor from the power of the wicked!

We live in a world of increasing inter-connectedness. It seems we are virtually never alone. This is especially true for people like me who are tied to their smart phones. We are connected to our family no matter where they live, even on the other side of the world. I love to text back and forth with my cousin Raju in New Delhi, but I often forget he is 11 hours ahead of me. When I send a text to him on Sunday at 6 p.m., he is receiving it on Monday morning at 5 a.m. (He loves it when I do that.) We are immediately connected to tragedies like school shootings or natural disasters, and we weep as we watch them unfold. I know if there are bears or bulls roaming through the stock market minute by minute. The slip of the tongue of a politician is broadcast not only all over the world, but into each person’s pocket. It feels like we know what is happening to everyone everywhere in the world at every moment.

But ironically, people also feel incredibly alone. In a sense, when we are connected to everyone, we can feel like we are not really connected to anyone. Increasingly rare are conversations that last more than a few moments because they happen over texts; it feels like a privilege to talk to someone on the phone. Teenagers experience this isolation and try to get attention by cutting on their bodies. They think that maybe then someone will stop and talk to them and give them undivided time and attention. I worry especially about widows and widowers who have lost their life partner, with whom they shared everything. They are now thrown into a world in which people share very little but share it with everyone. Our relationships have become “a mile wide but an inch deep.”

The Old Testament prophet Jeremiah was very familiar with feeling alone but he also knew where to turn for comfort, namely, to God. He writes: “All those who were my friends are on the watch for any misstep of mine…But the LORD is with me, like a mighty champion: my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph.” Notice Jeremiah is talking about his friends who have turned on him. Jeremiah could not blame his smart phone for feeling isolated from others, but he became acutely aware that he was becoming increasingly alone in his journey as a prophet. In that isolation, Jeremiah turned to the Lord. Jeremiah’s relationships with his friends might have felt “a mile wide and an inch deep,” but his relationship with God felt “an inch wide but a mile deep.” In his suffering and isolation, Jeremiah found quality time for God, giving him his full and undivided attention.

My friends, may I suggest that you not wait till suffering strikes to spend quality time with the Lord? That is, do not let your relationship with God continue to be “a mile wide and an inch deep” like so many of our other relationships these days. St. Teresa of Avila, the great Carmelite mystic, taught that prayer was the best way to spend quality time with God. She wrote in her autobiography: “For mental prayer in my opinion is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us” (The Life of St. Teresa of Avila, 8.5). When you pray try to turn your smart phone completely off, rather than just turning it to “silent.” In your conversations with people allow time for silence, even if it feels a little awkward. That is called “a pregnant pause” because it can give birth to a beautiful friendship that may be an inch wide but a mile deep. Yesterday someone brought a couple of board-games to the office for the youth group. I said the teenagers would scoff at it, but the ladies in the office said their kids loved playing board games and it created really meaningful family time.

Sometimes the only way to be more connected to the people right in front of us (including God) is to be less connected to the rest of the world. That is the only way we will overcome our aching loneliness.

Praised be Jesus Christ!