Snowpocalypse

thoughts on springtime and a video message you need to hear

We’ve had a bit of a snowpocalypse here in New Hampshire these past two days. Heavy wet snow and high winds have caused power outages all over the state. I don’t want to even say this out loud, but as I type this at 7am on on the second day of the storm, schools have just been closed again, lights are flickering, and there are still steady, wet flakes falling from the sky. What in the actual New Hampshire springtime is this?

Losing power is always an eye-opening thing. We were luckier than many and were without electricty for only about 12 hours yesterday. I always laugh at myself when the power is out because I still walk around trying to turn on the light switches. Yesterday, when thinking about one of my kids who was without heat for an extended time, I had a sudden thought: “They need a space heater!” Duh. We definitely take electricity and all manner of modern conveniences for granted.

But the internet is an entirely different thing. There’s nothing like having no wifi to help you realize how much we need it for our work, but also how reflexively we turn to television and the phones in our pockets for immediate entertainment. We don’t sit still. We don’t like silence. We never allow ourselves to just be.

My son, Ambrose, who is a high school theology teacher, records his class lectures and shares many of them online. I wanted to share this clip with you because, although he’s talking to high school students, it’s a message every one of us needs to hear. Also, it’s sort of a surreal mom moment to have your own former teenager lecture you about the dangers of technology. I have to say, I am here for it.

Watch the whole thing here.

While this morning I am grateful for iphones, refrigerators, and flushing toilets, I am thinking more about our need for stillness and quiet.

How aboout you? Even if wifi is flowing freely through your household this morning, what plans do you have to just be? To be still and know God?

God bless your weekend!