Taken by Time

I just read a blog by one of my best friends whose title reads, "The End of E-mail?" The reason he asks such a question? People don't read his e-mail. It's not that the Internet is failing or that his recipients are illiterate. They simply choose to ignore him. Shockingly, the people who shun and ignore his mail are not distant relations, vague acquaintances, or disinterested friends, but church leaders, many of which under his supervision! More shocking, his mail is generally concerned with what these leaders are suppose to be doing. He's giving them vital, important information, and they ignore it.

My friend, being very charitable, put most of the onus on himself (e.g.. his mail starts with a small devotional, he's too long or too concise (!), and people just don't have time in their busy schedules). He then pondered the ways he might more successfully connect to the people he's trying to lead and reach.

I honor my friend's charity and desire to be relevant. But I disdain the way we (American society) have ratcheted ourselves down to the lowest gear of meditation necessary to survive. Meditation on anything--e-mail, a textbook, a sermon, a poem, a film--requires taking time by the horns and commanding our own attention. When you meditate on something, you think about it until you understand it. Because understanding something requires this kind of continual, uninterrupted thought, mediation demands we take time to do it. If we do not, time has taken us.