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We live in a sound bite culture.
By this I mean that we live in a culture that wants answers given in usually under two minutes. Think about how this plays out even when you are using your smart phone to watch or download something. It doesn't really matter that the download could be coming from the other side of the planet - if it takes more than 15 seconds, we are usually feeling like it's taking (as we often say) "forever".
We can discuss and philosophize about why our culture is this way (changes from the Age of Industrialization and growing specialization, massive shifts and advances in technology), but I'd rather focus on the impacts. Here are 3 ways our sound bite culture influences us, particularly around issues of faith.
1. People don't have time to discuss the tough questions about God, faith, the Bible, and more. People want answers now and oftentimes the assumption is that if you can't give a short and convincing reply in a minute or two, then it's probably not true, or at least probably not worth taking the time to listen.
This is dangerous because if we are honest not, much in life comes quickly. Completing a degree, gaining physical strength, improving one's health or marriage - these don't happen overnight. These kinds of life-altering changes take time, and so to assume that answering questions about the Creator and Sustainer of all things will happen quickly - it's just not reasonable.
2. Reading has often become skimming. While Barnes and Noble isn't going out of business, it is clear that the kind of reading most people do is in short snippets, reading from social media, light-weight papers, and the like. Again, in wrestling through deeper issues of life, most authors take time to build an argument after laying a solid foundation. But with deep and pensive reading becoming more and more rare, deep thinking is also becoming rare.
3. Christians are settling for merely a 'devotional time' and are not studying the Bible. Reading any Scripture is helpful and life-giving (see 2 Timothy 3:16-17), but the fact that many Christians don't have time or interest in the study of Scripture has massive implications. Training for battle by doing 10 push-ups and then speed-walking for 20 minutes a day will not cut it, and nor will a brief reading of 2-3 verses and then moving on with your next 23 hours and 56 minutes. We need to steep in the Scriptures but the culture tells us that if it means sitting and thinking and praying, you're wasting too much time.
Pressing back against a sound bite culture is hard work, but it is vital - especially for the Christ-follower. God has ordained the world to work in such a way that significant changes rarely come quickly, but instead through extended time and effort. God could have written the Redemption Story in a few years but instead we are a part of the story thousands of years later. I'm glad God didn't rush it, aren't you?
- tC
