Thus says the Lord: "Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.
But they said, 'We will not walk in it.'" --Jeremiah 6:16

 

9 May, 2008   comments: (0) Classic Devotion   Are We Guilty of "Chronological Arrogance"?    Quoting Terry L. Johnson . . . We are technologically superior to previous generations. But are we losing too much in the process? First we walked, then galloped, then road on rails together. Now we drive, largely alone with the window up, and go home to [air conditioned and heated] homes, only coming out to take out the trash or grab the newspaper. Once we entertained ourselves at home by reading books aloud. In the 1920s, families gathered around the radio. In the 1950s, they gathered around the TV. Now there is a TV in each room. Computers will only make it worse. Once the home was a castle, a place of refuge for the family. When behind its doors, the family conducted its affairs without interruption and without outside influence. Now one can hardly eat a meal or conduct family worship without the phone ringing. Sacrosanct family time is violated daily. Friends and strangers alike barge right into the middle of the family's most private and intimate moments via technology. Again my question is, is this progress? When does life slow down enough so that we can talk? When do we enjoy our neighborhoods? Where do we experience community? In the last 100 years we have gone from life on a porch with family and neighbors to life in isolation in front of a cathode-ray tube. Is the quality of life improving? Is ours a richer human experience? Frankly, I don't believe it anymore. Call it romanticism. Call it naivete. Call me a Luddite. We have wonderful toys today. But they have cost us too much. Growing prosperity and technological advancement do not necessarily or automatically mark human progress. I have labored this point because I believe the church has largely failed to recognized the death of family and community or compensate for it. Rather than reaffirm traditional practices that build family life and stimulate community, it has tended to baptize secular trends that do the opposite. The small neighborhood church has given way to the large commuter church. The friendly country parson has been replaced by the suburban CEO/pastor. Older practices such as the "family altar" and the "family pew" have received token attention while new programs have been devised that divide families and segregate the ages. In many ways we have become too clever for our own good. We are just as guilty of "chronological arrogance," as [one philosopher] called it, as the rest of society. Repeatedly tried and proven ways of transmitting the heart and soul of the Christian faith to others have been abandoned in favor of exciting, entertaining, novel, but ineffectual alternatives. We pride ourselves in being [contemporary]. We look down our noses at previous generations. We have had a love affair with the novel and new. Educational, political, social, and religious fads have swept over us again and again, first possessing the field and all right thinking people, and then in a matter of months, fleeing to the curiosity shelf in our cultural museums, replaced by yet another untested novelty. The time has come to admit our error and pause to look back before we again look ahead. What we hope to demonstrate in [this book] is that by returning to the practices of previous generations we may be able to revitalize the family and the church of today. The "ancient paths" of Sunday worship, Sabbath observance, family worship, and catechizing are where spiritual vitality for the future will be found. From:  Family Worship: A Resource Book For Family Devotions   Posted by: Jim B.   Link: http://www.oldtruth.com/blog.cfm/id.2.pid.1003   Be the first to post a comment about this article        Home  |   About  |  RSS Feed  |  Contact