Tag: distractions
“Faithfully Present: Embracing the Limits of Where and When God Has You” by Adam Ramsey is a compelling call to Christians. The book urges them to embody a life of presence in a world that is constantly distracted and disconnected. The book challenges believers to live out their faith with intentionality, focusing on being truly present with God, with others, and in their personal calling. It combines theological insight with practical wisdom. Ramsey’s work is a clarion call to rediscover the power and beauty of presence in an age of absence.
As a 43-year old missionary woman who has dedicated her life to serving others, I find “Faithfully Present” to be particularly resonant. The demands of ministry come with a set of worries and responsibilities. They often leave me feeling stretched thin and disconnected from the very people and purposes I am called to serve. Ramsey’s book serves as a… Read the whole post
We live in an inter-connected world, filled with collaborative tools and awash with information. But we also live in a deeply-distracted world and this is the serious downside to the interconnectivity we enjoy. We live in a world where few people seem to have retained the ability to concentrate deeply on a single project. This is no less true of missionaries, or at least all missionaries that are connected to the Internet through their phones and computers on a fairly consistent basis.
In Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, Cal Newport seeks to 
convince us of the importance of learning once again the skills of focused concentration and shows us some simple rules that he has learned to help him overcome this constant allure of distraction.
Newport is a professor of computer science (Georgetown) as well as a profilic author who writes about the impact of the technologies of the digital age on our life and work. The guidelines that he promotes in the book are ones that he has consistently practiced in his own life and work. He gives multiple examples of how they have changed his own approach to work. One of the most attractive selling points of his approach is Newport’s testimony almost never works past 5:30 pm, nor does he work on weekends – while still teaching regularly in a prestigious university, writing multiple peer-reviewed articles each year, and publishing five books. Learning to do deep work is radically different that “drowning” in our work.