Texting and Peeing

My wife, Kristy, and I saw Crazy Heart last Friday night. It was a moving redemptive story about a washed up country music artist. He learns to love again and dares to write new songs. He reenters life.

After the movie my mind was filled with inspiration, to live more and write better. I walked into the bathroom in the lobby with my mind racing, and there standing at a urinal was a thirty-something year old man texting and peeing. His little thumb worked the phone’s keyboard to the tune of flushes and drizzle. I know Oprah has her push to make texting and driving illegal, but surely something needs to be done about texting and peeing. We have to draw the line somewhere.

I quit texting and driving a few months ago. It’s just not worth it. Kristy and I made a pact. Even today, a stupid college kid almost slammed into the back of my truck. I saw him in my review mirror flying down the lane. I was completely stopped in rush hour traffic. He wasn’t, and he was coming quickly. He had his head cocked to the right and a little down. I could barely make out his fingers moving rapidly on his little black phone. He looked up just as I braced for impact. There was a screech. He stopped in time.

Last week I watched TV and surfed on the Internet for the first time. I’m a late adopter to most things, so we just got wireless in our house. For some reason TV wasn’t enough. I needed more. I felt dirty afterward, like I crossed some technological morality line. I don’t remember what I was watching, but I guarantee it wasn’t very good if I was interested in surfing. So, why didn’t I turn it off? Why did I let it continue to blab into my brain?

I think in our quest to be connected we actually lose a freedom. We lose the freedom to think.

Today, I was early to a lunch meeting, so I dared a new adventure. I chose to sit there, reading nothing, just thinking. People used to do this all the time, usually in rocking chairs. The people who still do it invent the products we type on, write the books we read, and direct the movies we become inspired by.

Thinking is one of the few rights and practices that can never be taken from you. Prison bars can never lock this up. It’s our greatest freedom as creatures. Furthermore, if God lives in you, then the desires of your heart, which are processed through your mind, may be the voice of God.

Maybe we should do less that we might think more.

Russ Masterson is a husband, father, child, friend and pastor. He also teaches, through talking and typing. Visit his blog at www.liesioverheardinchurch.com.