Attention: Our Greatest Commodity
A few years ago, I spent my birthday driving around San Diego with my husband grabbing up toilet paper.
Lest you think us strange or my husband unkind, my birthday happened to fall on the day when an unseen virus brought the world to a screeching halt. In a matter of moments, toilet paper went from an unnoticed common necessity to an incredible commodity. We were swept up in frantic fear. We laugh at it now, but, at the time, it was anything but funny.
The greatest commodity in our present cultural moment is neither toilet paper nor micro-processers; the greatest commodity is our attention. In a digitized age overloaded with information constantly tempting us to distraction, our focused attention is the greatest resource. If focused attention is envisioned as a spotlight, the beams of our attention are scattershot in a thousand directions.
The Battle for Our Attention
It is tempting (and convenient) to blame our distracted minds and lives on the technological advances that enable us to hold the world in the palms of our hands; however, the battle for our attention began long before the age of the iPhone. While technology may have exacerbated our penchant for distraction, we find its double origin in both the Garden of Eden and the human heart.
God, having stamped humanity in his own image and fashioned him after his own likeness, wired Adam and Eve for attention (Gen.1:26–27). With the gaze of their souls set on Him to whom it rightly, they flourished. However, lured by the lies of the Enemy, the gaze of Adam and Eve’s attention shifted to the fruit from the one forbidden tree (Gen. 3:1–6). Their wandering physical gaze merely mirrored their hearts prone to wander from God and obedience to His good commandments. Their dismal choice to disobey God began the ongoing battle for our attention. We’ve followed the sinful habits of our forefather and foremother ever since: worshipping and serving created things rather than the Creator (Rom. 1:21–25).
The battle for attention is primarily neither a technological problem nor even a neurological problem, though, at present, it involves both technology and neurology. The battle begins at the seat of the soul and ripples out concentrically from its epicenter.
Left to ourselves, we would never set our affections back on the beautiful God to whom they belong. Left to ourselves, we would be eternally stuck in our sin and its consequences. But thanks be to God, through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our gaze can be set on our Savior.
The Link Between Attention & Affection
Attention is only a commodity because of its link to our affection. Our hearts follow our eyes, and the objects of our attention give us windows in the sources of our greatest affections. In the Sermon on the Mount, the Incarnate Christ made mention of the link between human affection and attention: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light” (Mt. 6:21–22).
Thus, we ought not be surprised that the writers of the New Testament follow Christ in His clarion call to be careful about our attention. The writer of Hebrews told the early church, “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it” (Heb. 2:1). We, who live in the modern world in which billions of dollars are spent to systematically grab our attention, do well to heed his ancient advice.
Time spent scrolling on screens shapes our souls as it rewires the neural pathways in our brains. Similarly, time spent studying or meditating upon the Word of God warms our affection for Him and His people. In a world of distraction, one of the greatest apologetics the church can offer the watching world is our focused attention and ability to truly be present with others as Christ has been present with us through the Incarnation.
The Art & Science of Cultivating Attention
Learning to live an attentive life involves both art and science. The more we know about the incredibly complex human brain, the more we see a need to cultivate habits of healthy attention. There are three types of curiosity: diversive, epistemic, and empathetic. The first, diversive curiosity, is the short-lived type which click bait seizes upon. It is low input and low output. Little is given, little is gained. Epistemic curiosity, on the other hand, requires time, focus, and effort. It is the type of curiosity modeled by a PhD student who deeply commits to one course of study over years or by an artisan who works diligently at his or her craft or trade as an apprentice. Empathetic curiosity involves attention channeled toward others. In a culture most marked by diversive curiosity, Christians are both invited and empowered to practice epistemic and empathetic curiosity.
But cultivating attention involves more than science; it requires the passion and presence of an artist. To become attentive and present people, we must slow down enough to notice—to truly see the sights around us with new eyes and at a deeper level. By cultivating practices that help us to appreciate beauty and by imaging God in the creative process, we can begin to be more attentive people.
Here again, our God is prior. Neither beauty nor attention originate with us. They begin with our Triune God who graciously, faithfully attends to His people and sustains us with the power of attuned love. We cannot give to the world what we have not first received from Him. Thus, our priority in becoming attentive people is to fix our gaze upon our glorious God. Beholding our God, we will become like him (2 Cor. 3:18). Sitting under the beam of His attention will shape us into those who can offer greatest commodity in a distracted age.
