The digital world we live in demands our full attention by creating spectacular graphics and ever – improving devices to capture our gaze and hold us beyond our initial purpose for the quick glance. What is the impact on society and what is the toll on me and you when we sit before this visual buffet?
We live in an amazing time in the history of humanity. I like technology – often far too much! I enjoy the advancements and yet, I am aware of the constant tug, the pull, the FOMO. I believe that technology can and should be leveraged for greater purposes than lazy idleness. When we are living unaware of the constant and very capable draw, we are already losing our way to the digital pull.
“According to global stats, we now take more than one trillion digital pictures per year. We become actors before our own phones and the phones of our friends. We modify our self and filter our appearance. And then we become spectators of ourselves, because ‘each selfie is a performance of a person as they hope to be seen by others.’ As blobs, we seek an identity projection that others will celebrate.” Tony Reinke
Since I am a pastor, a dad, and a warm-blooded human being living in a day of endless tantilizing digital devices, it is with great excitement that I write this review and offer a hearty recommendation of Tony Reinke’s latest book, Competing Spectacles: Treasuring Christ in the Media Age. The title itself captures my distracted heart’s attention for something more glorious and grand than the never ending and quickly fading displays. Friends… we need more books like this one to help us navigate the digital minefields that are competing for our affections and attention!
Reinke defines a spectacle as: “A moment of time, of varying length, in which collective gaze is fixed on some specific image, event or moment. A spectacle is something that captures human attention, an instant when our eyes and brains focus and fixate on something projected at us.”
Spectacles are everywhere. They are unavoidable. And… let’s face it…ours is a day that is filled with an excellent and varying array of spectacles! I found it refreshing that Reinke didn’t write with a legalistic tone to in some way eliminate all the devices. Nor does he write to call us to pretend that they are not there. He writes to help us process how we are being affected by the lazy gaze. As we devote more of our time and energy to the spectacles, Reinke sets out to show us that we are being shaped by them.
Reinke writes, “Why do we seek spectacles? Because we’re human, hard-wired with an unquenchable appetite to see glory. Our hearts seek splendor as our eyes scan for greatness. We cannot help it. The world aches to be awed. That ache was made for God.”
So, if we are not able to eliminate them nor can we pretend that they are not there, what are we to do?
This is what I love the most about Reinke’s writings. He takes us to Colossians 3:1-4 and helps us to see the greatest spectacle in all of human history, the gospel of Jesus Christ!
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
It is this greater glory and greater spectacle of Jesus Christ that is to capture our affections. Paul to the Colossians tells us why we are to set our minds on things that are above. He says, “For you have died, your life is hidden with Christ, and that Christ is your life…”
That’s right friends! How do we fight this present age of Competing Spectacles? We run to the greatest spectacle of all time. Jesus Christ, the Son of God came in human flesh. He died on the cross, rose from the grave, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He redeemed our lives from sin and death. We have been reconciled and adopted by the Father. We have His Spirit now living in us. What an amazing spectacle the gospel is! The iPhone, social media, entertainments, and all the rest do not compare to the spectacle of Christ our Savior!
Disclaimer: I received a free pre-released copy of Tony’s book for the purpose of promoting it. However, being a big fan, and having recommended Reinke’s previous book titled: 12 Ways your phone is changing you, this promotion is sincere. This review doesn’t encourage you to purchase his book because I received a free copy, it encourages you to purchase the book because it is so desperately needed in our day.
Do yourself a favor and grab your copy and while you are at it snag a copy of Reinke’s previous book, 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You.
Competing Spectacles: Treasuring Christ in the Media Age by Tony Reinke
12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You by Tony Reinke
