Unplug

First off, never fall asleep watching the movie "Transcendence" while you've been reading a book about the technological advances in robots.

But I was trying to think of what to write about last week's Winter Retreat (why there was no blog last week, sorry) and I started thinking about the idea of unplugging. For those that don't know, we don't allow any cell phones on our retreat. Some students hate this, some don't come because of it, but it's something we push. What's the point of going away to retreat from the world if you bring your phone with you?

The biggest reason is it's hard to hear from Someone quiet when there's lot of noise around you. We spent our Sunday morning in the woods (luckily it was 55 degrees). Students were asked to pray quietly in God's creation, for 20 minutes at a time. Each time we gave them something to pray about and focus on. We did this three times (we ended up in the woods about 90 minutes). And then something amazing happened.

Students heard from God.

Because they took the time to be away, they were somewhere quiet, they unplugged, some students actually heard from God. We had one student ask if he could stay an extra few minutes. Because they put themselves in a place to hear from God, they did.

When was the last time you prayed without distraction? Sometimes it's good for our soul to unplug.

T