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Graceways August 8 Devotionals

by David Joynt on August 08, 2024


JOHN 10:10 | 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

 

What is the cost of digital addiction or obsession? One cost is relational. Digital media emphasizes short moments of entertainment, and social media companies want to keep us scrolling without thinking. This pattern inhibits our ability to engage with others, and sustain attention. We have all gone to a restaurant and been near a family that was eerily silent, with children and parents all separately engaged with their screens; together, but strangely apart. When we do talk to each other, our presence is “fractured” or partial.

 

Jesus came so that we might have life to the fullest. The key element of this life is deep, connected relationships. Too much screen time can undermine the life God intends for us.

 

Are you able to be fully present with others?

 

 

Gracious God,

Give me the ability to will one thing, to be fully present, to set aside the digital for the actual.

Amen.

 

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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