By The Numbers
The impact of the smartphone has been significant in our culture. Like Kip, from Napoleon Dynamite, we all love technology, always and forever. So much so, that we have become obsessed with our smartphone use. Recent data suggests that on any given day, the average user checks his or her phone 110 times! In other words, when we are done checking our phones, we check again. On average, this happens 110 times per day.
Before you think the data is a bit of an exaggerated stretch, think about it this way: spread over 12 hours, that’s one glimpse every six or seven minutes. That’s not difficult to imagine. In fact, a new word has been created to describe the fear of not being with your mobile device: nomophobia.
The term, an abbreviation for “no–mobile-phone phobia,” was coined during a 2010 study by the UK Post Office. The study found that nearly 53% of mobile phone users in Britain tend to be anxious when they lose their phone, run out of battery, or have no network signal. The study found that about 58% of men and 47% of women suffer from the phobia, and an additional 9% feel stressed when their mobile phones are off.
We are spending more time with technology and less time in God’s Word and personal relationships with one another. The end result is that we live in parallel universes: the virtual and the physical. And the two often are in conflict with one another. In 2012, LifeWay Research surveyed more than 2,900 Protestant churchgoers and found that while 90 percent “desire to please and honor Jesus in all I do,” only 19 percent personally read the Bible every day. The desire and the act are not the same, because the virtual has dominated and monopolized our actions. We spend more time with technology than God.
In another study, researchers from Oxford University have discovered that those who spend more time with technology experience less satisfaction in personal relationships, including marriage.
Christians are spending less time reading the Bible and spending time with one another, and as a culture, we are experiencing less satisfaction in personal relationships.
In a paradoxical way, the smartphone has enabled us to do more, see more, read more, watch more, engage more, play more, chat more, and explore more; but it has also enabled us to idly do less, see less, read less, watch less, engage less, play less, chat less, and explore less. It has significantly helped ruin relationships by allowing silence in place of conversation while we swipe and type away. We talk more about people, and less to people. We are no longer a world that holds hands with one another because we are preoccupied with our handheld devices.
Worst of all – It has distracted us from our relationship with God.
The Phone Is Not The Problem
The prevailing issue is not technological, it is primarily theological. We do not have a hardware or software issue, we have a theological issue: idolatry. We give God less of our time in exchange for more time with our phones and their enticing apps.
Technology, rather than God, has become omnipresent in our ever-connected world. We carry it in our pockets, purses, cars, and set it down next to us on our desks at work and our nightstands at bedtime, allowing it to distract and entertain us whenever we are summoned by its allure to prostitution. Wait, prostitution? That came out of no where. And a bit provocative, don’t you think?
Yes, prostitution. The Bible uses this word to describe what takes place when God’s children turn to objects to which they can devote their affection and time. For example, the people of Israel in the book of Judges “prostituted” themselves to false gods known as Baal and Asherah (Judges 8:33) by sacrificing and giving their devotion and time to the gods. These gods were merely carved wooden images. And yet, God counted whole-hearted devotion to these sticks as prostitution.
The children of God were consumed with man-made objects, giving their minds over to what they might do for these carved pieces of wood. They gave no time to worshipping the true God who astonishingly desired their devotion (Deuteronomy 4:24). Not because God is in need of devotion. God needs nothing and no one. He is fully satisfied in Himself. Yet, our Creator is free to share His infinite kindness freely. And this is precisely what He did to those people who then promised that they would glorify Him. But they soon disregarded their commitment and sought a different way, bowing down to those handmade time-sucking, soul-draining, and life-less gods. All of their devotion to breathless Baal and Asherah, was considered spiritual prostitution.
We, too, are guilty of committing idolatry, not with wooden images, but with technology. When we find ourselves more consumed with our smartphone, we need to stop, repent, and devote time with our consuming fire, God, whose undeserving love is for those who go to Him.
The phone is not the problem. We have an idolatrous, prostituting heart that is easily enticed and pulled away by lesser things.
The Phone Is A Problem
Although the phone is not the main problem, the phone remains a problem. In many ways, the smartphone distracts us from hearing God’s voice by hindering our communion with God. As a result, in order to hear God clearly, we need to stop distracting ourselves with the smartphone. The Bible puts it this way: “Let us throw off everything that hinders” (Hebrews 12:1). Is your smartphone a hindrance to your communion with God? Note the Biblical command – “throw off.”
Jesus Is The Answer
By itself, getting rid of the virtual doesn’t remedy the spiritual. Technology merely exposes idolatry. In fact, getting rid of technology without dealing with the idolatry may actually exasperate the problem and cultivate a spirit of self-righteousness. In only getting rid of the smartphone, we may wrongly think of ourselves as righteous and good by throwing away the technology, but never dealing with the sin of idolatry.
The sin of idolatry is foolish, destructive, and angers God. But Jesus announces that our debt of sin has been cancelled at the cross. Our idolatry has been nailed to the tree. And by faith, Jesus restores and reconciles the beautiful relationship between man and God, whereby God sees us, not as prostitutes, but as His crown of splendor and royal diadem (Isaiah 62:3). Jesus came, not to get rid of technology, but to get rid of our sin, and to bring us into the loving hands of God, securing God’s love and forgiveness.
Getting rid of technology will not make you accepted before God. Jesus earns your acceptance by completing the work of salvation. And by faith in Him, you are forgiven and redeemed.
Redeem Technology
In the book of Judges, God asked His people to tear down the idols made out of wood and to use the sticks to offer a proper kind of sacrifice (Judges 6:26). The wood that was once used for idolatry and sin would be redeemed as firewood for the new, proper kind of sacrifice.
Some of us need to redeem our smartphones so that we can know God more. I’m not asking to redeem your phone so that you can be accepted by God. As I said, Jesus already secured your forgiveness, redemption, and therefore, your eternal acceptance by God. But I am saying that you must make a plan to redeem your use of technology in order to commune with God unhindered. We’re so distracted that we can quickly become carnal and preoccupied rather than spiritual and edified. We need to make a conscience effort to get out of the virtual so that we can flourish in the spiritual, thereby being obedient in the physical.
If you find yourself constantly distracted by checking your phone, and neglecting fellowship with God, let me give you some help. Here are some practical ways to redeem your phone:
- Download the YouVersion Bible app and start a Chronological Bible Plan. Don’t be part of the 81% of churchgoers who are not reading their Bibles daily. You can click on this link here to get started http://bible.com/r/5.
- Put your smartphone away during personal conversations. People matter.
- Turn on a calendar notification to remind you to read the Bible in the middle of the day. When it pops up, read the Bible.
- When you’re out with family, like at a restaurant, keep your phone in the car. Those who urgently need your attention are already with you.
- Don’t just read the social media timeline or newsfeed; pick up the phone and encourage a friend.
- Turn off notifications you don’t need. You don’t need every useless flashing banner to steal your attention.
- Uninstall apps that can readily bring about an opportunity sin. Guys, you know which apps can effortlessly funnel in pornography. Uninstall those and seek accountability.
- Create boundaries by limiting your duration on an app. Twitter for no more than five minutes a day? Then commit to that. Pinterest once a day? Then don’t go on it twice a day. Instagram twice a day? Don’t check it three times. Create achievable boundaries.
- End your evening, not with a last glance at social media, but with a Scripture reading or devotional.
- Sacrifice it to the Lord by praying, “God this is yours. I want to use it in a way that honors you and benefits others.”
Technology isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. But don’t let the virtual world tarnish the spiritual. I’d like to hear from you. What are other ways in which you can redeem the smartphone?