Fill some of these hours with thought
I’m seeing lots of suggestions in the news and on social media about how to fill your hours at home in these long days of self-quarantining. I have one too.
Don’t.
Don’t fill your hours with activities, social media, and binge-watching. Instead, leave time for sustained contemplation. For thinking.
On a normal day, when the country isn’t shut down and we’re not all shuttered inside our homes, we’re so busy with work and activities, and when we’re not, our minds are captive to a myriad of sensory inputs – TV, radio, social media, YouTube – leaving little to no time to ponder the existential questions of life.
But now most of us have time to fill and I’m just suggesting that we take this unique opportunity to spend some of it in silence and solitude, freeing our minds to wander the halls of being and meaning. Venture out of the confinements of mundane duties, habits, and activities and explore the “upper story” (a la Francis Schaeffer) of timeless substance and significance.
Depicting this exploration as a floor plan would be appropriate, but since I like flowcharts and find them helpful, I’ve created one to show the paths one’s mental excursion into matters of infinite meaning might take. And the upper story door I open leads to the most important existential question we can, and should, ponder. Does God exist?
Two quick notes before you enter the door after me:
- I’m assuming God to be the one revealed in the Old and New Testament.
- I use the term “fool” not as a term of derision but as the Bible uses it, as a factual description of one who lacks good sense or judgment.
Now of course, this is a simplification and just an example of where your wandering thoughts may take you. But I encourage us all to step out and up to where answers to life’s most important questions can be found.
While we can.
*Romans 1:21-22 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools.
Video Link A: https://www.youtube.com/user/drcraigvideos/playlists?view=50&sort=dd&shelf_id=12
Video Link B: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k64YJYBUFLM&t=12s
Video Link C: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxj8ag8Ntd4&t=1s
