In 2013 I came across an article about Jane Chen, a woman that was deeply moved by the high percentage of child mortality around the world, especially in under-developed nations. She stepped into an innovative journey of creating a tool that was much more cost effective and usable by the mothers of the premature children being born susceptible to child mortality.  Normally an incubator would cost around $20k and could only be used by professionals.  She focused first in India.  Most of the children dying were in villages where mothers did not have health care or were too far from the cities to reach for help.  The technology she developed cost around $300 per unit and could be easily learned by mothers in a village. This technology has saved thousands of lives daily that would have otherwise perished.   

This is an incredible example of having the right motivation, “to love our neighbor as ourselves”, and passion to create with our God given resources and talents, in order to bring the highest good.  I can’t help but imagine this young lady being a Christian that was desiring to help the brokenness of the planet.  God stood behind her idea and “strongly supported” her into finding success.   

What a powerful opportunity we have to co-create with God in bringing His beauty into ugliness, His order into places of chaos and His abundance into places of great scarcity.  Rather than being afraid and hiding away, waiting for Jesus to return, I believe our stance as Christians should be that of this young lady that created this technology to save lives.   

It’s a stance of being on the offensive, rather than on the defensive.  God said that the gates of hell would not prevail against His bride.  The enemy has clearly come to steal, kill and destroy that which matters most to God.  “What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than God, And You crown him with glory and majesty! You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet,”  Psalms 8:4-6 NASB.  We have a responsibility to take up…with God. 

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For my 3–hour device free reflection time, I chose to go up to a mountain range about 20 minutes from where I live. (Cohasset) The temperature drops about 10 degrees and the terrain completely changes.  Deep forest of pine trees and wilderness are all around me.  It’s so peaceful, yet so loud.  The wind going through the pine trees sounds like ocean waves coming and going.  I ask myself, “Why don’t I come out here more often?”.  It takes time for the silence to engulf me fully.  At first my mind is thinking of many things, such as expectations, people to see, things to do that were left undone.  Could I really get away this long? Shouldn’t I be with the boys or my wife?  I should be doing this or that… etc, etc.  The silence in the car almost felt like it prepared me for this special moment.  It felt like I was walking into a ritual of sorts, to get away with no distractions.  I felt God’s delight.  My inner voice felt louder than normal.  I whispered things to myself. 

Turkle underscored that, “when we let our focus shift away from the people and things around us, we are better able to think critically about our own thoughts, a process psychologists call meta-cognition”.  I heard her warning of the dangers of living a life of constant connection.  This is my tension.  I experience the reality of finding myself always connecting to my phone, checking my messages, often from our work groups, making sure that I’m answering any questions and commenting on things to make my contribution, or making sure people know where I stand on something said.  I feel the tension in it.  Do I really need to say something? Am I saying it for other’s sake or for my sake?  For how I think others might see me?   

In solitude I evaluate my intentions.  I believe it is there where the Holy Spirit tugs our hearts. 

*Book – Turkle, S. (2016). Reclaiming conversation: The power of talk in a digital age. Penguin. 

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