Rest and Devices
When it comes to getting rest for our souls these days, has God has left us to our own devices? Actually, I think he wants us to put them to rest so we can rest. Our devices . . . today’s biggest enemy to rest.
We’ve heard the statistics. The average person each day spends over 75 minutes on social media, nearly a half hour texting, 25 minutes on email, 15 minutes playing games, and the rest of the time on calls and apps, for a total of over four hours a day. The biggest time waster used to be TV. Now it’s whatever we want it to be on our phone.
We’ve also heard the health warnings. “The more people use their phone,” Dr. Nancy Cheever, researcher at California State Dominguez Hills, told ABC News, “the more anxious they are about using their phone.”
People are anxious with their devices. It seems like we’re anxious without them, too. When we don’t have our phone with us, we’re afraid we’ll miss a text. We don’t want to be excluded from important information. As a result, we have some sort of device detachment syndrome.
So you don’t think I’m immune to this, I admit I have my phone with me all the time. I check it often for a number of reasons. I don’t do Facebook (it makes me anxious) but I have a plethora of other choices. I must make sure the weather forecast hasn’t changed in the past half hour, my favorite team is still playing tomorrow night, and I haven’t missed any breaking news, and a super-duper urgent text hasn’t escaped my attention.
Once I have all that settled, I’m at peace and can rest. Not quite. Ten minutes later, I have to re-check all those sources. No wonder I can’t rest!
I hope you’re squirming right now. You should be. I should be, too, as I confess my device dependence.
On the count of three, let’s both slide our phones across the floor like we’re a criminal surrendering a Magnum to the police. Ready?
1 . . . 2 . . . 3! Slide that phone across the floor. If you’ve got a second one concealed under your pant leg, slide that one, too.
I know this conversation is humorous, but the reality is not. How much time do we fail to rest because, thanks to our phones, we can’t shut down? We can’t relax! It’s tragic. God is sad. He sees us chasing our tails and beckons us to slow down, pause, stop. And rest.
On some phones, you can see a “screen time” report. How horrible. It shows us, like a mirror, how dependent we are on our devices. Imagine if you spent just 10% of that time resting? Resting with God. It’s like tithing your screen time to God.
Well, now that I’ve got you rattled, I’ll conclude today’s reflection and let you decide what your next step is. I can’t tell you what to do to take back some rest time from your device. But God can.
Slide that phone across the floor and spend the next few minutes consulting with the Lord.
(From my upcoming book. Your Life With God: 30 Days of Rest. Coming in October to Amazon.)
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