Serenity, etc...

So I did it again. I have somehow now managed to break my laptop twice in the span of 3 months after having gone 9 months without damaging this one, 3 years for the one prior and 2 years for my 1st one. What it is about my beloved Dell I shall never know, but hopefully once it returns to me from the soon-to-be-$500-richer-Dell Depot with a new LCD and a new motherboard I shall have no more problems. Little tip for those of you doting around with leather bags - treat the leather. My leather strap snapped 2 weeks ago thus sending my bag and my laptop plummeting to the brick floor of the UNC pit. And no for all you neo-nazi's out there - a Mac couldn't withstand that punishment either!

Anyway - the point to this random diatribe is indeed the subject of the day - serenity. It's amazing the added peace I have found while sans laptop. For the last 10 days now I have been soley reliant on my Treo, my pad of paper and whatever files I remembered to copy to my flash drive to get me through the day. As a result I have spent less time on the Web and more time getting done what is immediately in front of me. There is a certain serenity in a return to the days where we didn't NEED to be in the know all the time. I actually go several days now without knowing if the Braves won a game or not (they haven't). It takes me a day or so to know whether my fantasy teams are winning or not (they aren't). I have seemingly lost control of the news intake, fantasy player selection, instant e-mail respondage, and other things that used to compete (and typically win) for my thoughts and attention in my non-meeting time.

I wonder if perhaps that wonderful guy named God - all knowing - might have had something to do with this? I wonder if perhaps there isn't a joy in serenity. A joy in not knowing what is going on all the time, and being ok with that. A joy in reading a book printed on paper, reading the newspaper, talking on the telephone - those things that are so easy to neglect in our wired culture.

I wonder if I didn't have to lose my laptop to recover a part of myself that had been sorely missing.

At our Greek IMPACT meeting on Monday I defined LOST as it relates to faith and also to general culture. I proposed 9 definitions that dictionary.com listed for the word 'lost' and asked students to place themselves in one of them. Initially I placed myself squarely in definition 3 - having gone astray or missed the way; bewildered as to place, direction, etc - because I LOVE to get lost and then find my way out. Or at least I did as a kid (another one of those things that if I actually took the time to get in a position where I could lose myself in the wildernes I might actually enjoy it).

Upon further reflection, however, a more accurate portrayl of where I often find myself might have been definition #8 - preoccupied; rapt - as that hits right at the heart of every obsessive, overindulgent, workaholic tendancy that often prevades my life.

So perhaps this time of serenity - of relative peace without the Dellie - will teach me a little something about moving out of the lostness of preoccupation to a place that appreciates the moment and appreciates finding or recovering those places in life that information overload often pushes out.

What are the places in your life that you have lost the serenity that you used to cherish? Where are the areas that you have lost yourself and need the bigger work of the Lord to help you recover?