Hey everybody, and welcome back to the Set Your Mind Above Podcast! I’m your host BJ Sipe – I’m a Christian, a preacher, a husband, and a father. In this podcast we take everyday, ordinary events and explore how they can teach us extraordinary, eternal truths. I’m so glad that you joined me for this episode. Now, let’s open up our minds, our hearts, and our Bible’s together.
I’m doing it. You might be doing it. In fact, a lot of people are doing it. And that it is Wordle. I have always loved word games. I frequently play Words with Friends (which is essentially Scrabble), Wordscapes, and several other word-based games in my free time. I love challenging my cognitive abilities, and learning new words to incorporate in my own speech. Well, the newest game that has really taken off is this word game simply called “Wordle”. Each day a new five letter word is produced that you must guess. As you make guesses, it will tell you if the letters you used in the word you guessed are not correct, misplaced, or in the right location. You have six total attempts to correctly guess the right word. The best I’ve done thus far is on my third guess, but I’ve seen people get it right on the second try, and even by dumb luck the first guess. But that’s not what makes the game the most fun. What makes it fun is waking up every morning and seeing different people post their results for the new word of the day on social media. It’s not a competition, but what I’ve witnessed is pretty fascinating – because this game has created its own little culture of its own on social media. People share their results and then visit back and forth with dozens of others about the level of difficulty for that day. For the most part, what I have witnessed is that usually people do this right at the start of their day. I see people post their results anywhere from 6 am to 10 am each day, and that is fascinating to me for a lot of reasons. This really isn’t about Wordle, but what it’s about is our need to feel connected with others before we do anything else to start our day. In fact, did you know that according to a study done by IDC Research, sponsored by Facebook, 80 percent of all respondents reach for their phone within the first 15 minutes of waking up in the morning. That’s 4 out of every 5 people, one of the very first things they do when they wake up is grab their smartphone. Now granted, some of these individuals are doing so because (like me) they use their phone as an alarm clock. In fact, the study demonstrated that of that 80%, 44% used their phones in this way. But the data still demonstrates that for many individuals, the very first thing they do is grab their phone and jump onto social media. We want to check our notifications, see if we got more followers, see whose birthday it is today, read up on the news that dropped over night, or even follow up on a conversation we started with someone who commented back while we were asleep. Whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing, reality is that for a lot of us, our phone is as attached to our hands as our fingers are as soon as we open our eyes – and one of the driving reasons behind this is our need to feel connected. It’s why we share our Wordle results on social media – there is absolutely no need to do this, when you think about it. You can play the game if you so desired and then share nothing, no one needs to know your results of the word of the day. But most do share, and we share early in the day – why? Because it’s not really about the game, it’s about our need to feel connected to others right away. We are social creatures, and so many of our habits clearly demonstrate this, just like this new Wordle phenomenon.
How we start the day is extraordinarily important, isn’t it? The habits we develop to start our days go a long way in setting us up either for failure or success throughout the rest of the day. And while I can certainly see a lot of benefits of connecting with others right as soon as you start your day off, let me ask you this question: how much more important than is it that we would start our day off by connecting with God? What if grabbing our smartphone was not one of the first things we did, but instead we shut our eyes again and approached the throne of our Father in prayer? I am mindful of a passage that is recorded for us in Luke 5:15-16 concerning the prayer habits of the Lord, it reads, “But the news about him spread even more, and large crowds would come together to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. Yet he often withdrew to deserted places and prayed.” Jesus’ fame and popularity grew more and more every single day. He was connecting with people, teaching and healing them by the masses. There is no doubt in my mind that from the time Jesus woke till the time he laid his head down to rest, his attention was being demanded and pulled in all kinds of different directions. And yet, despite this, consider what the text says about Jesus – that he often would withdraw to deserted places and prayed. This was not something he occasionally did, but it was something that he often did – it had become his habit. Not only this, but Jesus did not simply attempt to connect with his Father in prayer while surrounded by others, no – he would go to places where he could be alone with the Father. Where there where no other distractions, no other demands, no one else vying for his attention – and there in such a place he could give his full attention to connecting with the Father. But the Scriptures tell us even more about this practice of Jesus, and what we learn is that often this time that Jesus took was the first thing he would do in a day. Mark 1:32-38 says, “When evening came, after the sun had set, they brought to him all those who were sick and demon-possessed. The whole town was assembled at the door, and he healed many who were sick with various diseases and drove out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he got up, went out, and made his way to a deserted place; and there he was praying. Simon and his companions searched for him, and when they found him they said, “Everyone is looking for you.” And he said to them, “Let’s go on to the neighboring villages so that I may preach there too. This is why I have come.” Jesus was in high demand, that even long after the sun had set the whole city was still coming to the place he was staying, doing all they could to get through the door to connect with him. There is no doubt that Jesus would have been tired, worn out, and ready for rest after a day of such important work. And yet, before anyone else was up the very next morning, Jesus was up and connecting with his Father. Even though other people were already demanding his attention and had been looking for him everywhere that morning, Jesus knew that there was something more important that needed to be done first. My friends, I know that many of us lead very busy lives. I know that your attention is being pulled in every single different direction. Surely many of you when you wake up already have people trying to connect with you as soon as you open your eyes: emails, texts, phone calls, notifications, and so on. But let me encourage you to draw your attention to Jesus & his priorities. Before you do anything when you wake, before you go make that cup of coffee, before you play Wordle, before you check Facebook or email, before you connect with anyone or anything else, make sure that you first and foremost connect with God.
Thank you for tuning in to today’s episode, and I would invite you back Tuesdays-Fridays for a brand-new episode each day. If you haven’t already, be sure to find us on Facebook for occasional announcements and special video sessions. If you have benefited from this podcast, please if you’re able be sure to share it with someone else that you think could benefit from it as well. Until next time, know that I love you, that God loves you, and may we all each & every day set our minds above.