Gary Turk – writer, filmmaker and award-winning producer – watched his cultural capital soar through the roof with the global success of Look Up. Look Up is a spoken word narrative, set to film, that exposes the shortcomings of a society addicted to technology. One of my favorite lyrics in the poem/song speaks to the longing for connection we desire and the lack of intimacy we experience; describing the outcome of generation raised in our techno-zombie age:
“We’re surrounded by children, who since they were born,
watch us living like robots, and think it’s the norm.”
Surrounded by children indeed! Look Up has as much to say to the church and as it does about the culture at large.
The shortcoming and sin he identifies are also the lurking nemesis behind my fourth desire of 2016: the desire to lean into the full, vital and vibrant reality of life in His Spirit, now!
Indeed, my difficulty to connect with God in a relevant, life-giving moment by moment way may be more closely linked to the habits I enjoy rather than the desires I express. Exploring this divergence between the habits I practice and the desires I express has caused me to consider to a biting question:
What is preventing me from leaning into the vibrant an life-giving presence of the God who is in my midst?
I think I may have stumbled upon a few answers.