Articles
"I Was a GPS Zombie"
Anyone who knows me knows that the above quote is not autobiographical. It was actually the title of an article on the USA TODAY website (5/22/18) written by a kindred spirit, another sensible soul who sees the folly of turning one’s geographical well-being over to a machine.
The author, Steven Petrow, tells of the moment when he realized that his electronic dependence had betrayed him: “I’m not entirely foolhardy, of course: In case of emergency, I always had my iPhone, with its built-in maps and ride-on-demand apps. My phone was my insurance policy. Alas, my backup plan didn’t help me recently when I found myself lost in Los Angeles – completely adrift – with no battery life left. Without my iPhone I couldn’t call Fred, who I had planned to meet for dinner, to say I’d be late. (Never mind that while we’ve been friends for two decades, I had no idea what his cell number was.)
“Nor had I paid attention to the name of the restaurant he’d texted me earlier. Which didn’t matter much, since I had no way to get there, anyway. I couldn’t request an Uber, and I couldn’t get a taxi to pick me up without providing a phone number to confirm my location. It wasn’t always this way.”
Petrow continues, “In the seeming blink of an eye my iPhone died, and I realized the consequences of my laziness: Not memorizing phone numbers. Not registering the restaurant name. Not even remembering exactly where I was staying. Not knowing where I was. Not being present in my own experience.”
I hereby stifle the urge to gloat. Of course, the real concern of this article is not getting lost in the City of Angels but getting lost on the way to where real angels reside.
So what does GPS have to do with that?
Humans tend to replicate earthly tendencies in spiritual matters. To be wholly dependent on GPS navigation (though it does have some legitimate value) is to trust in the authority of someone else, to stop thinking and blindly follow a directional voice. Subtle intuitions that can be relied on in the absence of an objective standard go dormant. In the process, certain useful brain function atrophies.
Likewise, to depend on other religious authorities, to surrender our thinking to an ecclesiastical body, to merely align with accepted traditions, to conform to our chosen orthodoxy – instead of being instructed by the Holy Spirit through His revelation – results in spiritual atrophy.
Jesus repeatedly challenged His audiences on this shortcoming:
“Have you never read …?” – Mt 21:16, 42.
“You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures …” – Mt 22:29.
“Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition” – Mt 15:6.
“Are you also still without understanding?” – Mt 15:16.
“O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!” – Lk 24:25.
There is more value to regular Bible study, attending Bible classes, taking notes on sermons or replaying them online than merely acquiring Bible knowledge (though that is of great value). In so doing we are exercising our spiritual thinking muscles. We are increasing our biblical literacy. We are enhancing our Scripture memory. We are reasoning things out for ourselves. We are training minds to look to God for answers, guidance and principles.
Again, that which is not exercised atrophies. But the end result of atrophy is vulnerability to invalid yet persuasive arguments. Someone may advocate error but we cannot detect it or refute it, so we again rely on favored authorities to provide a comforting answer. No doubt many Jews acquiesced to the learned judgment of the Pharisees and/or the gravitas of the priests in rejecting the plain evidence that God’s Messiah was standing before them. The atrophied mind is an unmoored ship on stormy seas.
It is more labor intensive to get out your Rand McNally and plot your own course, commit a route to memory, engage your directional intuition and visualize your progress. But doing so will prepare you for the time when your crutch breaks and you need your directional senses to find your way.
