Right now my daughter is reading a book
and making notes while texting back and forth to friends. My son is on his XBox playing some
skateboarding game. Hubby is playing on
his Kobo Arc looking for free science fiction to download, and I am typing away
at the keyboard of my computer writing this post.
That is technology today and how typical
households act- but certainly don’t interact. It did come in handy the other day on family
night as I had lost my voice and wouldn’t be able to speak. So we played a free ‘guess the drawing’ game
which was kind of fun. I made enough
points to buy more colours. Woohoo! Too bad when my daughter was showing me how
to scroll through the rows of choices she accidentally hit my hand and I picked
a set I didn’t really want! Oops!
In all honesty, I kind of wish most of
it would disappear because it seems as if people are becoming so addicted to
their devices that they are constantly on them, but certainly they have their
benefits. Finding information, joining
support groups (helped save my life once), reading while waiting for doctor
appointments, finding each other in crowds, texting ‘I’m here’ when waiting,
calling for help, playing games to help with memory, etc. There’s got to be a million reasons why
technology is good, but the biggest negative is the ease in which our gadgets can
become idols in our lives.
Spent 40 min. texting but didn’t have
time to pray. Played video games for an
hour but didn’t have time to read my Bible. Read news-feeds and played games on Facebook for two hours, but didn’t
have time to converse with God. Watched
a late night trilogy but couldn’t get up for church because I was too tired.
What is an idol anyway? Isn’t it a statue we bow down to and
worship? Not really. Anything that becomes more important to us in
life than God is an idol because it takes His rightful place. Yes, that means work, play, t.v., sleep, food,
gadgets, texting, games, TECHNOLOGY, etc. The list is huge. According to Webster’s, idolatry means ‘the
worship of idols or excessive devotion to, or reverence for some person or
thing’. Idolatry is a ‘work of the
flesh’ (Gal. 5:20) and those who
practice it will “…not inherit the kingdom
of God” (1Cor 6:9).
These days a form of self-worship is on
the rise as well: self-improvement,
sensuality, self-help, stubbornness (1Sm. 15:23),
self-centeredness, love of possessions, greed (Col. 3:5), knowledge, pride,
power, status, etc. We have become a
society that “…changed the truth of God into a lie, and they worshiped and served the created thing
more than the Creator…” (Rom.
1:25) As the Israelites of old, the “…work
of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made.” (Is. 2:8) has also
become idols today.
Little children, keep
yourselves away from idols.
1Jn. 5:21 ISV
And so, my dear
friends, keep on running away from idolatry.
1Cor. 10:14 ISV
