A return to reverence.

Have we created a beast that can’t be tamed?

I wonder this sometimes.

A world run by social media, news and entertainment has set so much interconnectedness in motion that it likely will never lose its momentum. It can’t be undone. It can’t be tamed.

And it has changed the tone for an entire culture – altering the trajectory of history for generations to come.

The constant attention-holding. The constant distraction. The constant dopamine rush. It leaves very little to be longed for. It leaves very little to the imagination.

We know it all and see it all these days.

I recently saw someone post something along the lines of, “I’d like to be more unaware. Let’s raise unawareness instead of awareness for once.”

And they’re right.

Because at this point we’re overly aware of everything. Which makes us overly concerned about everything. Everything has become our business whether we want it to or not.

If you’re connected to a phone or internet at all, there is no way to not see and hear what is happening all around the world. So much so that there is little space left for the unknown—to wonder and behold it.

After a while, it feels like everything is meant to be our business. And we spend so much time trying to sort it out in our heads that we lose ourselves in it.

Is nothing off limits?

Is nothing private?

Is nothing holy?

Is nothing sacred?

---

“You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred.“ – 2 Timothy 3:1-2 (NLT)

We have lost our understanding of sacred things.

And without an understanding of what it means for something to be sacred, we have no reason to treat anything with reverence.

We lose our understanding of reverence in and of itself.

We have no concept of what it means to hold something or someone as sacred. To worship in reverence.

I do not think it’s a coincidence.

If a culture has no concept of sacred, how will they know what it means to behold and worship a sacred God? How will they understand holy reverence?

---

That’s why He says to fix your thoughts on whatever it’s true, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is holy.

Because it transforms absolutely everything.

Maybe things set in motion around us can’t be undone.

But we can still carve out space to be undone in the presence of God.

Undoing our tangle of distracted thoughts. Undoing the constant need to consume. Undoing the layers we’ve built to keep from being still.

In order to return to reverence, you need to hold space—
space to undo your thoughts and fix them on what is true and holy.

And there is no better way to do that than to soak in His Word and His presence. Holding space to just be with God.