Mark Twain said there are two kinds of people in the world, those who are always early and those always late.  He then added, "Usually, they are married to each other!"

     Here's another, "two kinds of people," those who know what splinching is and those who don't.  The dividing line is whether or not you've read Harry Potter.
     When author JK Rowling speaks of splinching, she is describing poor wizardry.  As you may know, wizards can disappear from one place, then reappear in another.  But, here's the kicker: it takes a lot of concentration and focus.  An inattentive, would-be wizard might reappear with some body parts missing!   This goof-up is called splinching.

     How embarrassing to be at Wizard School and rematerialize among your buddies with a nose missing or maybe an ear or maybe worse!
     Said another way, to splinch is go from one place to another without all of you showing-up.
     Get it?  We are a society of splinchers: fragmented, distracted, and scattered of soul.
     Yes, I too splinch.  Liz can testify.  My Beloved will be trying to have a conversation with me while I am fiddling with my Blackberry in one hand, a book in the other, a supper plate in my lap, and spelunking for the TV remote lost somewhere in the hidden caverns of the Lazy-Boy.  And yes, Liz has her ways and words of getting my attention!  She can take care of herself.
     Feel free to bootleg off my confession.

     Between the pace of the job, the expectations of productivity, and the fire-hose of information streaming at us, splinching has become an art form.  If you are not getting 100 emails a day----from people you actually know and with information you, in fact, need----then your computer has crashed and cell phone is missing.
     I splinch, you splinch, we splinch...we have splinched.

     I anticipate this getting worse.  There is a new norm of multi-tasking and anxiety.
     It is a long way from Jesus' notion of, "Let not your hearts be troubled...my peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you."
     A frantic life is sinful life.  (I am assuming God will agree!)
     I hope that the pendulum will swing away from this generation of parental wide-spread anxious behavior that is downloaded into kids.  I hope it will swing back to calmer leadership---but I suspect that will take a generation or two to get there.
     Being a spiritual human is not a quick-fix project.  Spiritual maturity, according to Eugene Peterson, happens at about the speed of glaciers; but it is a powerful process. 
     If your life is like mine, there is too much splinchin' goin' on; and we can't 'splain it away.  But we can confess it.
     There is an antidote: Sabbath-keeping.  Stop, rest, love, pray.  And as Jesus might say, "Go----and splinch no more."

August 9, 2009
 

 

To reserve your copy of the book email the church at info@northsidedrive.org or call the church office at 404-237-8621.  Cost is $30 per book.  A copy of the book is in the office hallway of the Chapel during the summer for previewing purposes.

The book will be dedicated on August 16 during NDBC's worship service at 11 AM.  Our own Myrtie Cope, photographer, will be available to autograph your copy after the dedication service.