Revive Me Again

Saturday Night came on quickly with the hint of an autumn cold. I took 2 Nyquil cold pills and my eye lids suddenly became so heavy that I couldn’t lift them. Forgoing my nightly ritual, I woke up after 8 solid hours of sleep and realized that I did not plug in my iPhone. In today’s world, that’s like going to bed with your shoes on…. you just don’t forget something like that.

The coma-like sleep I enjoyed in actuality was an unintentional experiment.  You could call it a scientific procedure undertaken without intention, but with a new discovery demonstrating an unrealized fact.

So, here’s how the experiment took place. Before getting on the way to church this morning, I asked Siri what the weather would be. I looked at my phone and only had 12% of my battery left. I thought to myself, I’ll get 10% in the car on the way. By the time we left the driveway, I realized that the car charger was in another vehicle. I began to think…conservation!! On Sundays, I use my phone in Bible Fellowship and our church has an app that gives you the ability to digitally make your offering. I said to myself, “the smartphone is a spiritual necessity ;-)”. By the time Jerry Morrison, our teacher, began to teach, I had the urge to check my email, respond to a text and yes, check a Facebook push notification. By this point, I was down to 2%. Then….  black-screen. It was an emotional experience. I felt like the digital door had just shut. Darkness fell upon the face of my earth.  I looked at my neighbor who was following the Bible Fellowship teacher intently with his ancient calf-skin cover 1000-page bible. Ink marks were actually in the side notes of his bible; The book even had a silk-ribboned page marker.  At the same time, Jerry, the bible teacher said, what is it in your life that causes you to take focus off of Christ. I looked at my black screen and said “could there be a hypothesis that would suggest that the smartphone in fact causes a person to take focus off of what or who you should be paying attention to?  Unfortunately, like sin nature, suddenly, I was thinking… “could someone be trying to text me”, “could someone be sending me an email”, “where can I find a charger”?  Then in that moment of self-reflection, it came upon me and I raised my hand. I confessed, our smartphones have the ability to take our focus off of Christ. Not just that, they can take your focus off of family and friends.  Elizabeth (My wife) has demonstrated frustration with me in the car when she is driving with my preoccupation to Facebook, audio book, and text messages.

On the way home, after placing a “thermometer” in my heart, I realized my issue was “digital addictiveness.”. It came on slowly without realizing I was infected.  

I think the point in this blog is to suggest we all become aware of what technology has created within our interpersonal relationships. Emotional multi-tasking with your phone typically will create a less than authentic conversation with whom you are in front of.  With intention, I am going to try to refocus my attention.

In all candor, I’m not turning my phone off. I’m not going to quit accepting and sending text messages, heck, I’m not even going to quit Facebook, but in light of this experiment, I am going to intentionally reconsider effective time management of accepting and giving text, IMs and other push notification.  I’m going to try to be a little more aware of this digital phenomenon that our technology culture has created.  

So like Christ who raised Lazarus from the grave, I'm going to try to bring back to life the idea of completely being there.  Revive me again! 
PS: If my buddy in Montana reads this...I know, you and L have preached this to me before.