I was sitting in my office when my youngest daughter called. It was a “driving conversation,” one of those where one of her parents takes the place of the radio. It started when she was in college walking between classes, just a call to say hello, to ramble about nothing, to know that there were people who love her. Now that she is older we get those calls when she is driving. It is the same purpose. We are just long-distance companionship.
We serve that purpose when she isn’t listening to a podcast. That was the topic today. Her older sister is going to a live taping of a podcast this weekend. Both of them went to a taping recently. It is their new entertainment.
Podcasts, if you are old and out of touch, are a “digital audio file made available on the Internet for downloading to a computer or mobile device, typically available as a series, new installments of which can be received by subscribers automatically.” (Thank you Google!)
There are all kinds of podcasts on just about every topic imaginable! Want to know about home repairs? Check out https://www.homerepairtutor.com/
Want to know about finances? Check out https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510289/planet-money/
Are you more into the history of space? Then Moonrise is for you! If you love politics then you have a wide array depending on your political position.
Get the gist? There is a podcast for everything!
Some are funny; some will make you think; others will just make you cry! (Listen to Everything Happens with Kate Bowler. The best, but don’t say you weren’t warned!)
So today as we were talking about podcasts and what she was listening to these days Savannah said something that made me think. She said, “Dad, I know you don’t remember this,” (thank you for recognizing that I am not THAT old) “but don’t you think this is a lot like the move from radio to TV only in reverse?”
It got me thinking. For years we have been told that we are moving from an audible world to a visual one. We watch things now where we used to listen.
Are we about to make a switch back? Do we have a new generation that is moving from a visual world to an audible one?
What does that mean for worship, after we have spent all that money on screens and projectors and sights and sounds?
Maybe nothing.
We may be living in a visual world.
But…..