Today on the blog we’re very excited to have bestselling novelist Francine Rivers as a guest. In this crazy, hectic world, we all struggle with distracts. Here is how Francine deals with this very noisy world . . .
Everywhere I go lately, I see people staring at devices, tapping out text messages. I see teens and even adults playing computer games while wearing earphones so the real world can’t distract them from winning the battle or quest or whatever the end goal is. I’ve been in coffee shops where people sit alone, noses buried in iPads or computers, and seen people in restaurants never speaking or looking at one another because they’re smitten with the “smart” phone in their hand.
It makes me kind of sad. Time passes so quickly. How many will look up one day and wonder where their lives went? Maybe most people don’t have dreams these days and are satisfied with playing games to pass the time. Is there a reward for making it through all the levels of a game? I know there’s the pride factor, the brief “fix” of accomplishment. But then what? Start another? Start over at the bottom with fantasy characters we strive to control?
Hey! Wait a minute! I’m a writer. I live in a fictional world. I create characters and try to control their thoughts and actions. I stare at a computer screen most of the day (and sometimes into the night). I’m tapping out words constantly. I don’t sit in a coffee shop sipping lattes because the real people might distract me from my make-believe world. I isolate myself. Sometimes when Rick and I are out to dinner, I’ll stare into space, hearing voices in my head, seeing scenes on the movie screen in my mind. Rick knows the look.
And then there is the television set. Can it be considered a drug of choice? The first one in my life was a tiny screen in a big box and there were only two or three channels. I’d make a tent over it so the sunlight wouldn’t cause a glare and ruin the cartoons. I graduated to other more intellectual fare; Star Trek during my college years. Now we have a DVR! We can tape shows and cut out all the commercials. Rick loves sports. I like nature, travel, English soap operas, Castle . . . Oh, dear.
A recent newspaper article said video gaming addicts will spend 8,000 hours of their teen years playing computer games. If the addiction carries over into adulthood, how many years are lost from distracted living?
I start my day reading devotionals with Rick and then studying the Scriptures and praying. Considering I spend the rest of my day with my mind in a fictional world, and then relax in the evening by watching television, I think I might someday need an intervention.
“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Romans 12:2
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Happy reading!
