In An Age of Alienation, We are Connected to LOVE!

I only recently 
succumbed to buying a new phone. The old one was 5 years old, still working okay and 
probably did most of what I needed – except that the camera system was pretty old. The thing 
that finally tipped me, though, was the lack of security updates and the risk that posed,
especially for work and all the documents etc I had access to on the phone. 
I launched out to buy a new one and was bamboozled by the choice and the change in 5 
years. I was bombarded with ads and possibilities and completely overwhelmed. Finally, I 
recognised that I wanted a pretty good camera system to take photos when I didn’t have my 
proper camera with me. Much of the other stuff left me far behind. I bought a refurbished 
phone with 5 years of security and system update left, a pretty decent camera system and so 
much other stuff, I don’t know where to start with it. It is definitely ‘smart’ and many, many 
times faster and with far greater capacity than my old one. I feel lost.
There is so much possibility with this phone, and it isn’t even the very latest. There are so 
many things I could do but can’t get my head around. As I very slowly move into the world 
of AI and other technological marvels, I feel very lost and left behind, even wondering how I 
would actually use these wonders. I listen to advertising, to other (generally younger) people 
and realise my dinosaur status is very real. I’m left behind and if I try to engage, I feel the 
desperate pull and drive to move faster and catch up. As soon as I get almost up to date with 
one thing there are a hundred other, newer possibilities and I am driven to push harder, faster
and catch up. 
This is the way of our world, it seems. Everything is moving very quickly, and we are 
driven to keep up or be left behind – and most of us are being left further behind. The result 
is a feeling of tiredness, anxiety, stress, pressure, being lost, confusion and being overwhelmed
by everything. There is a pervasive sense of alienation across our society, and this alienation 
is in every part of our life – alienation with self (and who we are), alienation with other people, 
alienation with the Earth and its creatures, and alienation with God. 
As we desperately run to keep up, time collapses and is filled with more and more 
possibilities, more than we can ever engage with, even though we are expected to take up 
more than we are. German Social Theorist, Hartmut Rosa, tells of the introduction of email, 
with its promise to free up time and give us more free time. He describes how, prior to email, 
we may sit down to write (yes write!) 5-6 letters in a morning. They would be neatly written 
out in proper form, placed in an envelope, taken to the post office and posted. It might take up 
a couple of hours and we would wait a couple of weeks for a reply. The advent of email 
promised we could do these tasks in a fraction of the time – perhaps 30 minutes. There would 
be 1-1½ hours free to read a book, go for a walk, visit a friend… Perhaps initially this is how 
it all went down until everyone got on task with emails. Then we would have a reply to the 
first ones before we finished sending the last ones. When we opened our email to send these 
few, 20, 30, 40 or more were waiting for us to reply. Instead of having increased free time, 
our time was now filled with many more tasks that were now possible, and we ended up with 
less free time, more stress and considerably more work. Emails generally come without the 
pleasantries and personal touches that letters once contained. They are less relational.
I discovered through COVID that we could zoom meetings and not have to travel to meet. 
Instead of travelling to 3 locations to meet with people and take 4-5 hours depending on timing 
and distance, I could now sit in my little home office and meet people on the computer. I could 
do the three meetings in 3 hours – and add a couple of others as well. But I find myself reeling 
from one to another without space to disconnect and reconnect. I feel more tired and lost in a 
moving, changing world with my head spinning from these multiple encounters that are less 
personal, and I feel driven to do more.
In most conversations people usually add the word, ‘busy’ somewhere. We are all busy 
but if like me, you will stop and wonder what the busyness is all about. What am I achieving? 
What is real and good and life-giving? Is keeping up or filling my life with more and more 
and more, really what life and being are all about? Is this good for me and our society? When 
do I stop?
Well, I take a long walk each morning with our dog (always one, sometimes both dogs). 
It is a time without any technology, a time to ponder life, the world, to pray or reflect or just
‘be’ in the beauty of the creek and bush. As I was wandering along this week, I pondered 
Psalm 139, the Psalm for the week. It is one of my favourites. I love the recognition of the 
author who ponders the presence of God who speaks the questions and thoughts that come to 
mind: Where can I go to escape you? Wherever I am you are there? You know me intimately, 
better than I know myself – every word before it forms on my lips, every thought that enters 
my head… You formed me in my mother’s womb – you know me and love me.
As I pondered this Psalm and the busyness and loss of time and space to breathe and 
experience life, I realised that part of the answer, for me at least, is resonance – relationship, 
connection with people, animals, creation and God. It is to stop trying to keep up, filling my 
time with more and more experiences, or activities, or work. When I do this, my time becomes 
diffuse, flattened and ultimately empty of anything for this moment. I am striving to keep up 
with the future that never quite arrives but pulls onward faster and faster. Can I fill some of 
my moments, at least, with depth, with meaning and relationship, connection and wonder that 
holds me – now? 
This Psalm reminds me that I am known intimately and loved profoundly by the very heart 
and source of all love – God! It draws me into a space where I can breathe in and experience 
the presence of awe and wonder all around me. I can stop to see the flowers and trees, the 
gentle rippling of the creek, the first black snake of the season (very early!) basking in the 
warm sun, hear the birds sing and squawk and watch our dogs sniff and run and play in the 
park. I can feel the warm sun on my back or the breeze through the trees, listen to that 
hauntingly beautiful song or watch the gripping movie. I can share a table with friends and 
family or welcome others to a meal and share stories of life.
This world, my world becomes animated again with the presence of holiness and sacred 
wonder, the presence of God who fills each moment and invites me to open and experience, 
to live into the life that is God and no longer flattened, or flat out fast. It becomes a world of 
relationship where we embrace a fuller, richer way of peace, inclusive love and belonging and 
where technology serves us, rather than ruling our lives and enslaving us in increasing pace, 
of keeping up and losing our way. Wherever I go, God is there in love, grace, peace and life!