A Wrecking Ball to Babel

During winter, we'd turn on the radiator to heat up the air inside our home. Winter was spent wishing for spring, because it could get quite cold and bleak. Spring and summer would inevitably come, signaling that it was time to turn on the airconditioning. When you think about it, it's quite remarkable that we are capable of creating whatever environment we please. At the push of a button, we can change the channel, the soundtrack, the mood, the person we are talking to, the temperature.

I've begun to wonder if technological advancement has actually brought us closer to the ideal, closer to God's intended order of things. Or if it has separated us. I think it depends on us. There's a story in the Bible about the Tower of Babel. And simply put, it talks about how the technological achievement of mankind empowered them to the point that they felt they could approximate God's greatness. They could match the power of the Creator, they could reach the heavens. They were now creators, too. This was their downfall. And instead of drawing closer to God, they became all the more separated from Him and each other.

Many times, people tell me about how they feel separated from God. Many feel that they are separated from their place in the world among a sea of people. Many are in need of direction or purpose in life. Many have absolutely got to hear from God. But many don't. Many can't.

It's no wonder because in many ways, we've returned to Babel. We've come so far in terms of what we can create, and how we can manipulate the environment to suit our tastes. When there is spiritual turmoil, we can turn on the television and drown it out. We can get on YouTube to cheer ourselves up. We can text a friend. We can turn up the music. We can go out and forget about it by watching a movie and getting rowdy with friends, because even if we live far from each other, we have vehicles that get us wherever we want. We can daisychain our distractions.

We have made ourselves creators of alternative environments, where we are kings and queens, dictators of the way things should be. Instead of taking circumstances and silencing ourselves to consider what God may be telling us, we can do all sorts of things to create another environment, if the current one doesn't suit us.

Don't be afraid to face things. To switch things off if you have to. May what we've created draw us closer to truth, to our place in the world, to the service of others, to the presence of God. Otherwise, we're rebuilding Babel: a testament to our supposed greatness, a monument to our downfall.