Please note that after today, The Up Daily Devotional will be going on pause for a week. It will return on Monday, November 9th. For back issues, visit TheUpDevo.com, or you can listen to the podcast version on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Here’s today’s devotional:
“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Matthew 4:1).
Saint Anothony was an Egyptian monk from the fourth century. Even though he fled to the desert, people traveled for miles to get his wisdom and insight.
Recently, I interviewed C.R. Wiley about his new book: “Manmade: St. Anthony’s Guide to Surviving the A.I. Apocalypse.” If you’re interested in this in-depth talk, you can find the links below.
Why did St. Anthony go into the desert? It wasn’t just to flee a corrupt world. He went to spend time in prayer and to grow in virtue. Another reason was to battle evil spirits, just like Jesus.
Over the course of our conversation, Wiley talked about how the internet is everywhere. In our modern world, we can’t escape it. Even if we went to desert (like St. Anthony) our phones would still beep!
His point was that it’s hard to detach. “We have a problem,” he said. “There’s no physical place to retreat to.”
He then talked about going offline as a form of solitude. “Retreating from this digital virtual reality into the real is a discipline that we’re going to have to practice.”
I think that in a busy, noisy and digital world, that’s a helpful way to look at things. When we intentionally make space to go offline—going into the “modern desert,” as Wiley suggests—we are somewhat retreating from the busyness, noise and anxiety of the digital fracas.
And when that happens—maybe not all of the time, but some of the time—perhaps we can better discover those places of contemplation and prayer that were so common for St. Anthony.
“Retreating from this digital virtual reality into the real is a discipline that we’re going to have to practice.”
Notes:
–“Surviving the A.I. Apocalypse with C.R. Wiley.” Watch on YouTube here, or listen on ‘The Pulse Podcast with Matthew Ruttan’ (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc.). You can also find it on MatthewRuttan.com.
-Bible quotes, ESV.
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