The Danger of Never Being Moved
Why one of Jesus' shortest parables still exposes something uncomfortable about modern life
Welcome to today’s reflection.
Each weekday, paid subscribers receive an exclusive reflection designed to offer a thoughtful pause amid ordinary life. My hope is that these brief pieces create a little space for curiosity, contemplation and wonder amid the noise of the day.
If you’ve recently joined us, you may also be interested in my new book, Sacred & Secular: Find God in the Ordinary, which brings together some of the most popular and thought-provoking essays from this journey so far.
I get my news through an app on my phone and on social media. It’s a handy way to digest what is going on in the world, but it does have downsides. The other day, I realised I had spent nearly twenty minutes scrolling through stories that should have affected me far more than they did.
There was, of course, news of another conflict. A family appealing for help after losing everything in a fire. One friend was celebrating a milestone. Another was sharing heartbreaking news about a diagnosis.
I paused for a moment and realised I had responded to almost all of it in exactly the same way. I had looked. I had read. I had moved on.
It wasn’t that I didn’t care. I genuinely did.
But somewhere along the way, caring had become strangely detached. I could observe almost anything without it interrupting my day. I suspect in this age of scrolling, many of us have become rather good at that.
Perhaps it is inevitable. We live in a world where more information reaches us before we wake up than previous generations might have encountered in weeks. Every day brings another crisis, another opinion on it, another reason to feel outraged or inspired. Eventually, we develop ways of protecting ourselves.
We learn how to stay informed without becoming overwhelmed. That may be understandable. In many ways, it is probably necessary. But I sometimes wonder whether there is a hidden cost to becoming so good at protecting ourselves.
