Untethered

Not long ago, I forgot my phone sitting on the counter at home.

In general, I'm not particularly strapped to my phone, but when I got to work and realized that I was now without it, I experienced something odd.

I know I'm supposed to write something like, I felt so free, or, Finally, I could focus on the tasks at hand, and yes, there was a semblance of that, but what else I felt was disturbing. I felt a sense of loss and something escaping me. As a Gen Xer, I should have been above it, but I wasn't. Suddenly, I recognized a deep sense of...

Untethering. 

It's a good word for the way I felt about my phone that day. The phone represented possibilities, people who might need me, a future that might be out there, an escape from something that might be bothering me. And yet when I thought about it, I realized my phone was a mirage. Everything it represented was unreal - or perhaps the better term is - 'Unrealized.'

This moment of realization reminded me of a scene from one of my 'favorite' movies, Castaway. Throughout the movie, using the inimitable acting of Tom Hanks, the director, Robert Zemeckis, takes the viewer on the incredible journey of falling in love with a volleyball named 'Wilson.' As Chuck Noland (Hanks' character) finds himself planewrecked on a deserted island, he turns to a piece of flotsam to remind him that he is not 'alone' and still alive. As only Tom Hanks can do, the viewer finds himself or herself pondering, 'Would I not do the same? Would I get so lonely that I could have fully two-sided conversations with a piece of sporting equipment?'

And then it all comes to a head. After Chuck constructs a raft, he plants Wilson on a pole, and they sail off over the reef and into the wildness of the open ocean. Night after night, storm after storm, sunburn after sunburn, we nervously await the moment when Chuck and Wilson will be rescued. But then the unthinkable happens.

Wilson plips into the water and begins to float away.

As viewers, we are trying to splash water on the sleeping form of Chuck Noland. 'WAKE UP!' we shout at him. But it's too late. The camera floats away with Wilson until finally, Chuck wakes up and realizes that his only 'friend' in the world is gone and that he is finally alone.

With great trepidation, we view Chuck slide into the water and begin to swim after his volleyball friend. Just as he is about to reach Wilson, the rope connecting Chuck to safety and salvation strains tight. And in that moment, Chuck has to make a decision. Will he release his grasp on what is real to swim after what is not?

As viewers, we all understand that Wilson is not a real person. Zemeckis has used the volleyball as a symbol for the innate human need for connection and relationship. But the volleyball, if placed in the normal world, would not have any other use than to be smacked over a net. No (sane) person would hold a conversation with the volleyball much less risk his or her life for it. 

Somehow, though, I understand symbolically that Wilson is my mobile phone.

My phone is not a real person. My phone is a symbol, or representation, of the future, of people who might need me, or things I might be missing. My phone is a symbol of my inability to be present in the moment.

To leave it at home, for even a day, was an eye-opening experience where I had to choose what I wanted to be tethered to, and untethered from.

I needed to be tethered to people in the moment, listening to the stories and ideas of people around me, and untethered from something that is unreal - or unrealized. 

The future.

Jesus explains it this way: 'Don't worry about your life and what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear... Seek first God's kingdom and God's righteousness, and all these other things will be added. Therefore, don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.' Matthew 6:25a, 33,34

In other words, 'Don't tether yourself to the unreality of tomorrow, but seek first the things which are present here and now': God's gift of life and God's reality of righteousness. When you see these things, you'll understand that God provides the others as well.'

I hope you can untether for a while this week, not just from your phone, but from the worries of life! Enjoy the people around you!