The iRock Decade

Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.

Romans 12:3 (NLT)

Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.

Philippians 2:3 (NLT)

From the time I get up every morning, my day is drenched in technology, to a degree I never would have anticipated just ten years ago. I wake up and work out with a DVD. I get text messages about my bus schedule. I plug in to my iPod and listen to music or podcasts all day as I work. I take a break at lunch to catch up on RSS feeds for news and opinion blogs that I like. At home, I watch television shows that I’ve recorded so I can watch them at my leisure and skip the commercials. Such is life as we begin the second decade of the 21^st century.

All the technologies that enable this lifestyle are wondrous, things I wouldn’t have dreamed about 20 years ago. And I wouldn’t give up a single one! They’ve become so entrenched in the way I do life. But there’s a dark side to iPods and DVRs and RSS feeds... wondrous these technologies may be, but they also allow me to go through a day without interacting with real people. They give an impression of community (“Hey... I’m following your Facebook status updates on my cell phone!”) without any real communing going on. They’re totally focused on me, on my wants, on my desires. I love them, because by their very nature they’re all about me.

More than anything, these tools allow me to plug in to a digital reality that drowns out the real world that Jesus came to save. This world needs to see real love, and meanwhile, I’m plugging in and tuning it out. How about you?

iPods: I’m Probably Not Listening to You

Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.

 James 1:19 (NLT)

He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (NLT)

My son has a novelty T-shirt that reads, “I’m probably not listening to you.” It’s usually true, too, except for the “probably” part. More often than not, he’s got his head buried in a video game or some web site about video games, and I have to shout to be heard over whatever Mario-related development is currently holding his interest.

Of course, I’m one to talk. As I mentioned in the intro to this week’s meditations, I spend the better part of the day with white earbuds stuck in my ears, listening to podcasts and talk shows, completely lost in digitally encoded conversations. And it’s not just at work, either... it’s also in the car as we’re driving on long trips, or at home as I’m preparing dinner or working in the yard. When someone needs something from me, I sigh loudly at the interruption. I hit the pause button, pulling out my earbuds with a weary, “What is it now?”

Not a good sign, is it? It’s nice and comfortable in my little personal audio cocoon, but it tends to drown out the cries, the needs, the concerns of people around me. As followers of Christ, we can’t comfort others if we don’t know they need comfort. It’s pretty obvious: I need to unplug occasionally, look around, and listen.

DVRs: I Can Watch What I Want, When I Want

Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.

 Colossians 3:1-2 (NLT)

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

 Ephesians 3:10 (NLT)

I don’t do live TV. I just don’t. Why? Because I hate watching commercials. People will ask if I have seen some clever commercial for car insurance or whatever and I can truthfully say, “No, sir, I have not, and I do not care to.” That’s because the digital video recorder—the DVR, or even its old-school cousin the VCR, which we’ve been forced to resort to since giving up cable—records the shows I like automatically, and I can watch them whenever I want, skipping over those horrid 30-second money-grubbing abominations known as commercials.

DVRs enrich my TV-viewing experience. That’s not to say, of course, that they enrich my life. Yes, I can skip commercials and “time-shift,” but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m still watching TV (i.e., wasting time). And whether I watch it live or via a magical digital recording, televised garbage is still garbage.

Sure, there’s nothing inherently wrong with watching a little TV, but is that really the best use of my time? There’s no interaction, no community. It’s not about others. It’s about me. Entertain me and let me turn off my mind, so I don’t have to deal with or think about anyone else. With or without a DVR, that’s not God’s ideal for me, or anyone.

RSS: I’m Up to My Neck in Information

But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church.

1 Corinthian 8:1 (NLT)

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think...

Romans 12:2a (NLT)

The so-called “blogosphere”–the sum total of all the blogs worldwide–was in its infancy ten years ago. And my, how it’s grown. Millions of blogs are available online today, authored by celebrities or just people like you and me, professionals and amateurs, chronicling everything from political opinions to what some lady had for breakfast. I regularly follow blogs on hamburgers, politics, comic books, news, candy, science fiction, and all manner of uncategorizable miscellanea that appeal to me. There’s so much of it, constantly updated, that I can’t be bothered to go the individual blog sites to see what’s new. I use what’s called an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) reader to subscribe to those sites, so as soon as some guy in Ohio posts the latest behind-the-scenes scuttlebutt with Batman, I immediately see it.

It’s a deluge of information, so easy and convenient to access, that it’s no wonder that the world has entered a new Golden Age of peace, prosperity, and cooperation. Okay, I was laying on the sarcasm a bit thick there. The Information Revolution has brought none of those things. Information is power, they say, but they also say that power corrupts, so what do they know?

Information and knowledge may be vital to the workings of this world, but this world isn’t what we’re aiming to emulate. It is the love of God that changes lives and rescues lost souls.

Give me the desire to seek wisdom rather than just knowledge, Lord, and to demonstrate your love in concrete ways.

Drudge Report/Huffington Post: I’m Right, You’re Wrong

I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live in harmony with each other. Let there be no divisions in the church. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose.

1 Corinthians 1:10 (NLT)

For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us.

Ephesians 2:14 (NLT)

Anyone who thought that the rise of the Internet would bring about any kind of unity and understanding has clearly not been following the Web’s mud-slinging political side over the past decade. The left and right halves of the political spectrum have dug in their heels and established virtual bunkers from which they can lob bitter accusations at one another. Righties can rely on The Drudge Report and the Instapundit to assure them that the other side is unquestionably working toward a Marxist dictatorship. Lefties flock to the Huffington Post and DailyKos, where they compare notes on the right’s fascistic march to a Fourth Reich.

I tend to fall nearer to one side of those ideological spectra, and so I rarely, if ever, read anything the other side has to say. Why would I? I know I’m right, and why expose myself to anyone who is so clearly in the wrong?

Something tells me Jesus Christ wouldn’t share that opinion. He came to break down dividing walls, not reinforce them. Maybe it’s time to at least make a token attempt at believing the best about the other side of the aisle?

eBay/Craigslist: I Gotta Have It NOW

Then he said, “Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.”

Luke 12:15 (NLT)

A few years back, I got hooked on a comic book series that had been running for a while. It was a pretty popular series, and so back issues were a little hard to come by. But I’m an obsessive completist at heart, and I had—HAD!—to have the whole series. And so I jumped into eBay, the popular online auction site, and delved headfirst into the sea of comic books available therein. And I was in heaven! Every issue I needed was available, I just had to outbid the dozens of other nerds who also wanted those books. Anyway, my quest went swimmingly: I won enough auctions to finish out the collection. The books arrived in the mail and I was thrilled... until I had to explain to my wife why so much money was missing from the checking account. I was so engrossed in my search for this... stuff... that I forgot about other, more important things... like, you know, feeding my family.

Sites like eBay, or the classified ad site Craigslist, or even Amazon.com... these sites are virtual temples of consumerism. If I want it, no matter what it is, I can go online and—as long as I’m willing to pay for it—I can have it. It’s never been easier to give in to my desires, to my greed, to those urges inside that tell me I need to have just one more thing to feel complete. All I need is a web browser and a credit card. (And no self-control.)

What’s going on in my heart? What do I desire? If my desires are telling me that little colorful pamphlets of cartoons deserve all my time and resources, what does that say about my desires? If my utmost desire is not to know God, to love him, and to love his people... then my desires can’t be trusted.