Wondering Presbyterian

In the early 90’s, Disney introduced their television show, “Adventures in Wonderland.” The show follows the continuing story of Alice, who is able to step through her looking glass and visit her Wonderland friends whenever she chooses. Each episode began with Alice having an issue. Maybe it was trouble making a decision about something. Or maybe it was something she didn’t even realize was an issue, like the episode where she gossiped on the phone with a friend about a classmate who dropped his tray in the lunchroom, or another episode where she stole her sister’s perfume and accidentally spilled the whole bottle all over herself. Most of the time, it’s an issue Alice knows is an issue and she goes to Wonderland for time to think about it. She glances at her cat, Dinah, and steps through the mirror. Inevitably, her adventures with the Queen of Hearts, White Rabbit (who is a stellar roller blade star), the Mad Hatter, March Hair (what is a March Hair anyway? Oh. It’s an English idiom ...

"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." -John 1:14               I just finished reading Ron Chernow’s book,  George Washington: A Life . It was fabulous. If you are looking for a wonderful (and readable!) presidential biography, Chernow is among the top 5 authors to check out. Thinking about all the things that stand out to me the most about what I learned about George Washington in those 817 pages, my top three things are: 1)     He was totally obsessed with clothes. I’m not even kidding. He designed uniforms and custom suits for himself and for his soldiers  and  for his slaves! 2)     He was usually broke as a joke. Washington was not very good at living within his means and often had to threaten the people who rented his land just so he could collect their rent fees and pay his own bills....

Okay. I admit it. I've been procrastinating writing a blog entry on purpose. I've been putting it off because, quite honestly, I've been trying to take more breaks from being on a screen. I've been looking at screens a lot lately. And even though I have special lenses in my glasses now that protect my eyes from the blue light of screens, they don't really help the overall issue: screen fatigue. A lot of us have it. Students are in virtual school, employees are in virtual meetings. Working from home, so much of what I do involves a screen. Some days I log off one zoom meeting just to log into another zoom meeting. Ministry is so much screen these days, because it has to be. I connect to my people with a screen. Worship is through a screen. Then I'm reading a book on my phone's Kindle app, checking out online articles related to ministry, on my coloring app to try and "take a break from work" and... You get the point. It's a lot of screen. ...