Today I sent the Nikon D70 in for some much needed cleaning and also some service to the 18-70 lens. So, for the moment, I am camera-less. Well, not entirely, I suppose. Somewhere in the depths of the storage tubs, I am sure I can find my old Minolta 33mm, but my gosh it has been years since I have used actual film. And to be limited to 24 pics, yikes! However, I do have the Dare, which crazily enough, has 400-some-odd pictures on it already. The convenience of a phone camera is nice. Perhaps I should have bought a larger memory card!
Sometimes you don’t realize how dependent you are on technology until 1. it’s gone, or 2. it doesn’t work properly. For me it is a kind of love / hate relationship. For example, I love my laptop with it’s instant email communication and video messaging capability. I love being able to Google things and get instant answers to anything I wonder about. Imagine how we can zoom in on any part of the planet and see things from the air, and now with street view, you can virtually walk down the street. It’s amazing. I can send videos and music and art files in mere seconds. Life is pretty darn convenient. Then there’s cell phones – those convenient yet incredibly intrusive devices that make life easy but also make me all too accessible. From email to texting to twittering (and worse), we are in a constant flow of “communication” of the mundane and banal and the occasional moment of epiphany. Does anyone care I am waiting for a train? Really? Why do I need to share that absolutely pointless fact? Perhaps the challenge is to make it an interesting 140 words. Maybe I just don’t get it.
This afternoon I read this article by Josh Harris about twittering in church and it reinforced something I had been thinking about of late. Harris states:
Even if I didn’t look at anything else, the mere act of “tweeting” some quote or question or thought from the sermon would be several minutes in which I wasn’t actively listening to the sermon. Brain space would be taken up with typing and getting my word count under 140. God’s word preached is so important, so precious, I don’t want anything to distract me from hearing it. What if those two minutes in which I’m distracted are the two minutes my soul needs the most? The most important thing I can do while I’m sitting under the preaching of God’s word is to listen to what God is saying to me. I need to actively engage my heart and mind to receive (Isaiah 66:2). Twitter, can take the focus off of hearing and receiving and and makes it broadcasting and sharing. So instead of my mind being engaged with thoughts of “What is the Word of God saying to me?” when I start “tweeting” my focus becomes, “What do I want to say? What do I want to express? What am I thinking?”
That got me thinking about multitasking. Sometimes people talk about multitasking like it is this amazing ability and those who “do it well” are heralded as prodigious talents upon whom we look as akin to gods. Then you have those who say that “this generation is a multitask generation so you might as well get used to it.” I too am guilty of falling into this line of thinking as I can multitask fairly efficiently, although driving and talking on the phone is unwise for me unless I am on a nice stretch of highway. But seriously, is multi-tasking even a good thing? Is it? And is it truly even possibly to do well? I don’t believe we can do two things 100% without any loss on either task. So let me use the example of twittering during church. The speaker or the worship leader is there, trying to share his heart and what he believes that God is speaking to those of us sitting (or standing) and listening. The Lord is moving and a point is made. Rather than really internalizing it and meditating on that, we pull out the phone and disengage. Then, whatever is said next is somewhat lost because we spend a few minutes to type and send up a tweet. I love how John Piper puts it:
“We think you should use Twitter before and after corporate worship to say what you take in and take out. But when you are in corporate worship, Worship! There is a difference between communion with God and commenting on communion with God. Don’t tweet while having sex. Don’t tweet while praying with the dying. Don’t tweet when your wife is telling you about the kids. There’s a season for everything. Multitasking only makes sense when none of the tasks requires heart-engaged, loving attention”
I am still chewing on it all… I think that sometimes we (I) get so hung up on doing the latest techno-fad that we miss some of the more important things like really focusing; like stopping and listening to that still small voice of the Lord. He is speaking despite all the instant messages, ringtones and tweets and I know that if we will just stop, shut off the technology and listen, we might be surprised what we hear.
I heartily agree. When you’re in a corporate place of worship, tweeting and disconnecting from that time is incredibly selfish. You wrote it well and I don’t have anything else to add to that point.
Multi-tasking isn’t easy for me so finding it’s faults seems natural. : ) No, really. I feel that it is great if the tasks are mindless or don’t involve people, then great. People seem to be cheapened when they are multi-tasked between other tasks. I’d rather wait and talk to someone when they are ready to talk or have the space. That’s just me — a feeler. : )
I think it even interesting that we are using “worship” as something that is turned on and off, “begun” and “ended.”
“When I am worshiping, then I should not be tweeting.”
I think we tend to separate this in our actions and not see “everything we do as an act of either worship of God or self.”
The main point is certainly well put about how we are either focused on God or technology.
The question really then becomes, “is “tweeting” worshiping God at this moment or is listening wholly to the sermon?”
casey – well, i believe that pretty much everything we do is an act of worship – at least it should be. i don’t think there is a separation from spiritual life vs. everyday life. it’s all spiritual – either for good or for evil. so that is a good point… i think my point was to say in our never ending quest to hyper-communicate, do we miss out on the truly valuable stuff because we disengage.
did you ever try and have a conversation with someone who is so ADD that they can barely pay attention to you and keep getting distracted by everyone who walks by, and you can totally tell? to me, it’s kind of like that. when i have conversations with people like that, i just stop talking until they are ready to focus again. i don’t compete with the distraction. either give me your attention and engage with me, or don’t waste my time and i won’t waste yours. is that wrong? lol, i dunno.
Understood about the example.
I think the two greatest commandments are summed up in, RELATIONSHIP! As I “worship,” I would define that as either connecting/relationship to God or others OR I am connecting only to myself. When I connect only with myself and disconnect from God and others, I have deeply fallen short of our deepest longing as well as what God calls me to.
So, in your example, I would interpret the “ADD” as disconnecting from relationship and therefore, missing out on the two above commandments and desires. The greater misfortune is not helping him to see where his actions are leading him, in the most loving way, of course. To only wait for him to give attention or at some point, disregard “coming to your brother” would be partaking in the EXACT relational despair as he is engaging in. Funny, even as I wrote that, I realized how subtle I am in seeing this in my own life, but very easy to see others distract from me.
I would submit, however, defined by what I said above and what I currently see church being a lot of time, that “tweeting” in church can and IS sometimes fulfilling the the greatest commandments….if I am trying to connect and not “escape.”
Do you believe that multi-tasking fulfills the relationship commandments?
I see it in myself too – may e that is why I am working on the whole multi-tasking thing. When someone is talking to me, do I give them full attention or do I continue doing what I am doing? I do the, hey I have a lot to do, but if you don’t mind me working while you talk… Is that just as bad? Ha ha, i don’t know.
Well ,I wouldn’t say there is a straight-forward black and white answer. I would want to ask some questions of the parties involved.lol
Like, in what circumstance are you in at the time the person is talking to you? If at work, and you have something you need to get done, I would say it might be good to ask if you could talk with the person at another time so as to give your full attention.
Also, it might depend on how serious the conversation is. If the person is coming to talk about something they are struggling with versus telling you about another job you need to do, WHILE you are doing a job….Relationships are different too, which is why there are so many things to consider. I think the most important part is that one is “Considering/Examining” these things.
I would, however, tend to the side of giving FULL attention whenever someone is talking…eye contact, thinking about what they are saying because I would guess whether people tend to even think it or not, they would like and want our attention. ;