Dear West Family

I hope and pray that you survived Halloween week. It really is the barmiest “holiday” of all, where we suddenly decide that our children should approach strangers in masks who are offering them candy. What could possibly go wrong? We had a good time at the Lester house, although we are out of Jolly Ranchers already, which are the only acceptable legal tender with which my children can pay their dad tax. Daniel tried to pay me with some Hershey bars, but that is like trying to pay the IRS with some small rocks. It just doesn’t work. We are currently negotiating an exchange rate and suitable penalty fees for payment in Airheads in lieu of agreed Jolly Ranchers. It is complicated being a father in the modern age.

This last Sunday I had the privilege of preaching from Nehemiah 8 and there was something in that text that has been ringing around in my head the whole week. It says, 

3 And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law. - Neh 8:3 (ESV)

The people attended a worship service which was six hours long, outside, and as far as I can tell the entire liturgy comprised an uninterrupted reading of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Now I don’t want to presume on our faithfulness as a people, but my gut feel is that if we announced a six hour outdoor meeting where we would read the Pentateuch start to finish, well, we wouldn’t need a parking team, or all that many ushers. And yet, the people of Jerusalem so valued the Word of God that they were able to not just be present for such a meeting, but they were attentive.

It has had me asking all week. What has my attention? What am I easily and readily attentive to?

One of the limitations of our (frankly quite incredible) human brains is that they are not able to pay attention to everything, and certainly not able to pay attention to everything equally, at the same time. And so, in a world that is constantly fighting to gain and indeed to keep our attention, what we are attentive to becomes one of our most important and influential decisions. Attention is a precious commodity that we should spend with care, saving its value for the most important of things.

What we pay attention to is what we value most.
What we value most is shown through what we pay attention to.

This has me pondering some significant changes in my life. If the above value statements are true (and I believe that they are) then I am valuing many trivial things over time in communion with God. Change is needed to better display what I value.

Here are some of the simple disciplines that I am hoping to re-implement in my daily routines. These are obvious and yet I fail to live them out consistently, because I stop giving them the attention that they ought to have. 

1. Bible before phone. If I value the Word more than the wisdom of the world (news) and the identity I hope to find in others (social media) then I should reach for eternal truth long before I reach for anything else. I am thankful to Justin Whitmel Earley for his helpful thinking on this.

2. No empty scrolling. I like being able to check news and socials but I end up giving it way more attention when I let it set its own parameters. It is literally designed to keep me online, and so it is simply doing what it is designed to do unless I interrupt it with what I want it to do. The way around thai is to schedule small blocks of time to actively look for what you want rather than letting the algorithms tell me what I should value.

3. All notifications off. It takes me ages to regain focus after an interruption. These add up and end up taking time from things I do value.

4. Take my paper bible to church. Leave my phone somewhere out of reach.

5. Commit to the sacred slowness of the table. Eat an unhurried meal with my family at the table every day. No screens.

6. Let my first and last words of the day be to and from God. Wake up praying, fall asleep praying. No screens in bed.

What about you? What are you attentive to? Are you showing how much you value God, His Word, and the people He has put in front of you through the attentiveness you show? Don’t just give away one of your most precious possessions, the value of your attention.

The music this week is again from my friends in South Africa, We Will Worship. It is worthy of your attention.

We Will Worship // Nguwe

Press on, friends.
Ross