Also, I get the sense that this continual phone activity is a way of boasting without saying a word. "Look at how many friends I have and how busy my life is when I am not with you."
It sends a message that the person in front of them is an obligation and not a priority.
When we see someone checking their phone continually and boasting about those people on the other end, but not asking any questions about you or rarely commenting on what you have said, it is a strong clue that the visit is obligatory. God spoke of this in His word, showing His dismay at false friendships.
Matthew 15:8-9 "8 ‘This people honors Me with their lips,
But their heart is far away from Me.
9 And in vain do they worship Me,
Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”
In the days when the phone in a home was attached to the wall the lunches at restaurants could develop into meaningful communication because there were no distractions. When the people on the other end of the phone always take priority over those in front of them, they are sending the message that they would rather be with those people than with you.
Meaningful conversations take time without distractions and mutual interest in the lives of those in front of us. When our attention is continually disrupted, there can be no closeness with the people who are right in front of us.
Also, let me suggest that those who spend a lot of time on the phone are using the phone as a means to boast about how busy their lives are and how much other people like them. I guess I might identify it as a subtle form of "humble bragging." Boasting without blatantly expressing it.
Perhaps I am sensitive to this new phenomenon of the cell phone because of what I witnessed in high school 55 years ago. The popular people always had a beehive of people around them all the time, and anyone not in the click was treated with disregard, as though they didn't matter.
Cliques lead to bullying, even if only in subtle ways that make people feel inferior to others. They also lead to gossip that demeans others merely on the basis of guesses and wishes that someone were as they want to believe, always leading to self-exaltation.
Sadly, we live in the end times in which self-glorification is promoted while humility is seen as weakness. The interesting truth is that the need for self-glorification exposes the insecurity of those who must have it to feel worthy of attention. These people do not care about love; they just want to be revered.
It is humility that expresses the secure and confident person who has no need to be elevated in the eyes of others.
Ephesians 4 "4 Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called,
2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,
3 being diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you also were called in one hope of your calling;
5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all."
There can be no love without humility.
Philippians 2:3 "doing nothing through rivalry or through conceit, but in humility, each counting others better than himself;"
Colossians 2:18 "18 Take care that no one keeps defrauding you of your prize by delighting in false humility and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind,"
Colossians 3:12 "Put on therefore, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, humility, and perseverance."
Authentic humility can only come from Christ in us. He develops a heart of humility that is demonstrated in actions that are real without manipulation or self-exaltation.
When we become secure in Christ, we will not need the approval of others. We do not depend on others for validation because Christ in us is all that we need all the time.
No comments:
Post a Comment