The more advanced we get, the more we take for granted. Like flipping a switch. Wondrous things happen when we flip a switch: lights come on, power strips activate multiple devices and components, exhaust hood fans, and a million other marvels of our modern age.

If you are at least 40 years old, your grandparents recall an age when there was no electricity in homes. Maybe not even a telephone, let alone a television. We get perturbed when our cable TV goes out, for crying out loud. It may seem antiquated to ponder such things; younger generations sigh, roll their eyes, and/or get a knot in their stomachs when they hear the words “the good old days.”

The automatic, unconscious moments of our everyday lives that we seldom think about are nothing short of miraculous. In my quiet musings, sometimes I imagine a famous person from the past being plunked into 21st century America. Maybe the “Back to the Future” trilogy on TV last night got me musing again. The passage of time will not be hindered, and we bemoan the fact that most of the time, we simply can’t keep up. At best, we steal it temporarily.

I lament what we have lost in this post-modern era. We have lost being able to slow down. I am a self-professed (and observed) speed demon on the roadway. My days too often are agenda-driven, not purpose-driven. I am a time-conscious fanatic. The non-urgent essentials take effort to make time for. I want to flip the switch on life, move on to the next event, have everything working at my whim.

Today and tomorrow are ‘flip the switch” days. Today, we are invited to revel in Mardi Gras, “Fat Tuesday”, Shrove Tuesday indulgences. In New Orleans at midnight, it will be as if someone flipped the switch. Bourbon Street will be closed down, and the revelers will stagger off to officially begin forty days of NOT reveling, NOT indulging. We will flip the switch and begin a season of reflection, austerity, simplicity, giving up delectable delights, things we crave. Sadly, it is just that – flipping a switch, changing the channel. We seldom internalize the why, the purpose for Lent. One suggesting I have heard is to take an “electronic Sabbath”. Unplug. Be still and silent. It may just drive us stark-raving mad after ten minutes. I will not veer off into an extended discourse on the essence of our God-created self, tempting though that may be. (temptation – must not yield…).

It is a miracle that God continues to flip switches on us, re-directing us to His unconditional love.

Pastor Art