Excerpt from Colossians 4:7-17

"And when this letter has been read among you, have it read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you read also the letter from Laoodicea."

Reflection by Kenneth L. Samuel

News Flash:  The letters of the Apostle Paul, sent to churches throughout the region of Asia Minor in the first century, were not e-mailed, faxed or texted to individual church members.  They were sent to corporate bodies of believers and they were always read aloud in the collective settings of Christians, gathered together.  The letters of Paul were never intended to be read by individuals in isolation.  They always evoked a shared witness, and shared hearing and a shared reflection.

Our culture is in grave danger of losing the value of shared experiences and shared expressions.  Individual iPods, personal computers, and headphones that block out the rest of the world keep us contained within the confines of our individual interests, personal pursuits and private values.  The lack of comprehensive standards in education means that, as a nation of people, we share very little in terms of common references.   This means that fewer and fewer of us are able to identify with the experiences of Huckleberry Finn along the Mississippi River, or the hypocrisy revealed in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter or the abolitionist epic of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin or the dimensions of African American life described by James Baldwin in Go Tell It on the Mountain.  Consequently, our collective consciousness is eroding and our sense of shared values is in serious jeopardy.

Much of our technology has been used to build a global network of isolated individuals.  Why don't we take off the earphones and just spend a few days talking and listening to the special people in our lives?  Or how about buying copies of the same book for a group of friends and planning to read and discuss it together?  Or why not watch the same movie with your family followed by dinner at the same table while you engage in shared discussion?  Or...maybe we could all go to church together and share a common experience with God.

Prayer

Dear Lord, help us this day not to experience life in isolation.  May we connect with you through the people around us.  Amen.

About the Author Kenneth L. Samuel is Pastor of Victory for the World Church, Stone Mountain, Georgia.