A meme compared and contrasted European and American attitudes about time away from work.
The European out-of-office email reply read, “I’m away camping for the summer. Please contact me in September.”
The American out-of-office email reply read, “I have left the office for two hours to undergo emergency kidney surgery but you can reach me on my cell at any time!”
The lines between home, work, and play have blurred. We make ourselves overly available 24-7-365 via calls, voicemails, texts, emails, and social media. People risk not being totally present in any time or place.
The Lord calls, but we have our earbuds turned up. We encounter burning bushes but miss the theophanies because our eyes are fixed on digital screens.
The contemporary church introduces prayer with the litany, “With every head bowed, every eye closed, and every phone silenced.” The good Lord knows, we won’t turn them off.
Gordan Dahl wrote, “We worship our work, work at our play, and play at our worship.”
May God grant us the grace to unplug.
Treasure in Jars of Clay 
This is one of your more brilliant observations and, as always, right on target. Just yesterdayI told a friend how sad it was that our work expectations are so skewed. Being rewarded for not taking vacation and never missing work, even when sick, is clearly nothing to boast about. Your last line summed it up perfectly.
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