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By Billy Holland

Columnist

There is much to be desired when it comes to spending time alone. In the last few years, the floodgates of voices have been opened to everyone at any time.

Yes, we can see there have been written scrolls from thousands of years ago, and books were printed around the year 1200, but this information was not widely circulated.

Through the years, printing continued to expand, and when newspapers became available, the masses were given a new realm that would inspire and influence their thinking. For example, in the early nineteenth century, when many people lived in remote areas, they had no idea what was happening in the world. This isolation allowed them to concentrate on what they needed to do, which was physically difficult, but they were not filled with stress or fear about politics or social issues.

When the radio was invented, families would sit around and listen to various opinions and ideas. Later came the television that planted visual seeds within the mind and further persuaded the conscience. Was it invented for information or mind control?

We know in the last 100 years, the world has changed dramatically. There have been many wonderful technological advances, but at the same time, we wonder what the plans are for those who control them. Social media and the internet have become such a part of our lives that I’m not sure what any of us would do without them. These higher forms of communication are accepted as making us more intelligent, but could they also distract and hinder us from walking with God?

The greatest gift in the planet’s history is Jesus Christ; there is nothing more valuable than the privilege to walk and talk with Him. I have noticed in my life that I spend much more time watching and listening to others than having an ear to hear what His Spirit is saying. It’s obvious there is competition for our attention, and like programmed robots, the masses are addicted to the system. If someone were to unplug from the internet and television, they would be considered demented. However, what if someone believed II Corinthians chapter six is God demanding for us to separate from the world and spend our time meditating with Him? Isn’t this what Satan is trying to stop?

From July 1845 to September 1847, Henry David Thoreau withdrew from the noise and chaos of civilization with the desire to meditate and write. He built a cabin and lived alone in a remote area just south of Concord village Massachusetts on the shores of Walden Pond. In the quiet solitude, he found the wonders of God’s nature and the peace of His presence. As we purpose to be aware and listen in the simplicity of honesty, we too can hear and know divine truth.

Listen to his words: “I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives to live and could not spare any more time for that one. It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route and make a beaten track for ourselves. I had not lived there a week before my feet wore a path from my door to the pond-side, and though it has been five or six years since I trod it, it is still quite distinct. It is true. I fear that others may have fallen into it and so helped to keep it open. The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men, and so with the paths which the mind travels. How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity. I did not wish to take a cabin passage but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world, for there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains. I do not wish to go below now. I learned that if one advances confidently in the direction of their dreams and endeavors to live the life they have imagined, they will put some things behind and pass invisible boundaries.”

I realize that most people lead busy lives, but do we not have the choice to decide how trapped we are with the world? Are we in control, or are we being controlled?

Read more about the Christian life at billyhollandministries.com.