The Spinners and the Faith
Author: Staff | Source: Catholic.net
You don't have to carry out a scientific study to realize there’s something going on with spinners. They’ve became a trend in just a couple of weeks, and they went from being a toy that would only be found in YouTube videos, to an economic product that is sold in the streets, both the original product and its cheaper version, it became massive.
Surely have their charm, even if those who are older find it hard to understand what’s the fuzz about, but our children and young people seem to be fascinated with them.
The "Why" doesn’t interest me, but it seems that’s important that we look closely at the conduct that comes of having this toy in your hands.
I knew these things several months ago from those vague turns on YouTube, when suddenly some videos with the latest objects that calmed anxiety and maintain concentration popped on. There appeared a cube as a dice which had several things to drive and tighten, a few wood sticks that turned and moved in a very entertaining way and the famous spinner. The justification of their existence was not to offer them as a juggling implement or development of fine motor skills, but as accessories to "calm down and slow down the revolutions"; Like the foam ball that many of us use sometime.
So, is it that our young people are anxious, stressed, hard to concentrate and need an escape so frequently? I don’t know, but I think so. Otherwise, I don’t understand the worldwide success of the spinners. I’m not here to explain the phenomenon, for sure we all have different postures and diagnoses about it: families are dissolving, bad economic situation, identity crisis, etc.… But that’s another article’s theme.
But let's look at it with the eyes of faith. It is as if God is giving us the results of test, screaming and telling us: Your young people are anxious and stressed, they can’t calm down and will buy anything that can “help” to ease that feeling!
But what I find interesting is that the phenomenon becomes very evident when these young people want to deepen their spiritual life, when they take it seriously and make a path of faith. They become all uphill and it makes them very hard to get into the depths of God's love. Just look at them next time they try to do perform an "adoration of the Blessed Sacrament" or "Holy Hour", or simply open up one eye and see what happens to them when they are praying at the end of the meeting, especially when that Final prayer extends a little more than usual. Like they need to take a spinner to calm down the anxiety. They have a hard time praying.
What do we do then? It’s not about sending Christian spinners in the form of a cross or with images of saints, but we must look for ways to do as St. Paul said:
"I have become weak with the weak, to win the weak. I have tried to adapt as much as possible to all, to save some “ 1 Corinthians 9, 22
And when Saint Paul talks about adapting to everyone, he doesn't talk about teaching spinner techniques and tricks in the midst of the group's reflections or allowing the kids to use different accessories to "calm the anxiety and stay focused in the midst of the moments of prayer. I truely believe that Saint Paul meant it as: “understanding who they are “, what their deepest needs are, their struggles, their concerns.
Sure, they will be able to stay focused on the moments of prayer, if what we are praying makes sense. Otherwise, they're sure going to start thinking about what outfit are they wearing tomorrow or the homework’s due date. If what we’re praying doesn’t make sense, they're going to be distracted.
A pastoral that makes sense, that is meaningful, that involves something more than singing and jumping from one side to the other at rhythm of a mustard grain. A pastoral that gives answers to life, those answers and that peace that, for now, they find in a piece of plastic with three legs and a bearing in the center.
We rethink and we re-evaluate ourselves. Faith, community, spiritual life, prayer and above all, the relationship with God must be the greatest anti-stress, anti-anxiety, facilitator for concentration, a fashion that never wears out in your life and is always a success.
Never will a young man be bewildered in prayer if what he is praying is his life itself. Never a young man will have a superficial spiritual life and a little constant in time, if what we have shared makes sense to his life. But of course, if what we give is a manual of spirituality downloaded from the Internet, with ideas copied and that little have to do with what you really live, what you do on a daily basis, what you feel and the stage of life in which you are , we are likely to have boys and girls in our groups that every time we say "Now let's do a moment of prayer" make a face as if you’ve told them to chew stones.
I invite you to look at these spinners as an opportunity for reflection, as an invitation to adapt to the example of St. Paul And to rethink what our communities are offering, through the faith and the love of God; For it cannot be that the antidote to their frustrations, stress and anxiety is a toy, it cannot be if they have God in their heart.