Simplicity is of the Lord, and it is important for us to bear this in mind as we navigate our way, in Faith, and through life. Often people complicate simple matters. Love is simple. Kindness is simple. Forgiveness is hard, but also simple. Hope and joy are simple. Friendship is simple. Silence is simple.

That which is of Christ is simple – and guarding the heart is a path toward simplicity and is a step toward filling the vessel of the soul with the Holy Spirit. If it is not filled with the Holy Spirit it surely will be filled with something else.

More than ever we need to rekindle the space and flame of silence. To be unplugged has become a luxury.

We are bombarded with many inputs throughout our days. So many distractions – especially when we are glued to our cell phones and apps and social media. We train our senses on a stream of constant stimulation and likes. There was a short time ago in history when we knew how to stand in the space of silence. We also knew how to be fully present with those in our midst, looking and listening to the person before us.

Communication used to be simple and required no other platform than simply to be present or to pick up the phone, maybe write a letter.

Now, we have Texting, Snapchat, What’s App, Skype, Email, Facebook Messenger, Private Messages on Instagram, Telegram and probably so many other apps that my kids haven’t found yet. So many ways we have to communicate that you have to spend lots of your time checking in on all of them, stressing if you lose a streak yet diminishing the depth and quality of your communication to the streak – because you have hundreds of streaks on your Snapchat so you need to get through them all quickly… and now there is anxiety to see if you missed a message on one of a dozen apps, because you don’t want anyone to feel like you forgot them, or have to wait more than a few minutes for you to respond.

People end up all over the place :: fractured :: connected yet isolated, and “liked” yet feeling alone, left out and insecure.

Not only that, think of how many times your are with someone who is having multiple texting conversations – while semi-present with you – at the same time? It’s unsettling and distracting. We are taught by our Faith to see Christ in the other. Is that even possible through texting? One can not say for certain that it’s not possible… and yet…

Once at a retreat led by Metropolitan Kallistos he told of a simple proverb – maybe it was Russian – it is hard to remember, but, like all proverbs it is deep, simple and very profound.

Where is the most important place in the world ? The place where you are right now. Who is the most important person in the world? The person right in front of you.

Proverb – author unknown by this blogger

There are even apps for prayer, yet no app can pray. There is an app for CALM… and yet science shows that the very act of looking at any computer screen or electronics actually stimulates the nervous system… perhaps there will be an app for Stillness and Hesychia soon, maybe even an app for Silence.

The soul is not “liked” it is “Loved”. There is no button for that. It does not thrive on constant stimulation but silence. Even reading the Bible on Kindle is a place of distraction… the world constantly tempting my fingertips. There you are, reading out loud, “In the beginning was the Word….” and a stream of texts come in… Gmail dings, Instagram and Facebook notifications beg you away for a hit of dopamine…. but I’ll get back to the Bible in just a second… only to be confronted with the end of the day, and the Lord was totally forgotten before the altar of the App, the altar of Notifications, the altar of Instagram, the altar of WhatsApp, the altar of complication and overstimulation.

What are we doing to ourselves?