Lessons from a Cell Phone

This week my cell phone crashed, and eventually died altogether. My first thought was, I survived two-thirds of my life without a cell phone, I will be fine until I figure out what to do about a new phone. But as much as I hate to admit it, it didn't take me long to realize that I could hardly function without my phone. Just coming into the church office I remembered that I use it for the door locks, the alarm and the a/c thermostats, just for starters. I also depend on it for my alarm clock and my calendar, and for doing daily Bible studies on an app with a few friends. I also use it for navigation to give me directions to unfamiliar spots, for mobile banking, tickets into games, and for coupons to buy food. 

All that and I still haven't gotten to the original purpose of a telephone, which is communicating with others. I need that too, for phone calls and texts and even emails. Not to mention, how will I ever take pictures of my food to share it on social media if I don't have a phone?

Sadly, most all of us these days are seemingly tethered to our so-called "mobile devices," whether we want to admit it or not. I don't know who comes up with these statistics but I read this week that on average, we cell phone users unlock our phones 150 times a day. We also tap, swipe and click on our phones 2,617 times per day. That's more times of touching our phones per 24 hours than there are minutes, and that doesn't even account for sleep.

Of course, some of you are reading this on your phones, and maybe you have tapped or swiped a few times to other things since you started reading. Such is the fast-paced, attention-challenged world we live in. Hardly anything keeps our attention for more than a few minutes at a time.

There are certainly some positives to all of the information we have available in our "smart phones," though something tells me we're not getting a lot smarter, And there are surely a lot of negatives to our device addiction, not the least of those being the lack of social interaction for those always looking down at their phones.

That used to be a teenage thing, which we grown-ups enjoyed pointing out. But we were out the other day and I noticed a table full of five or six "seniors"--all appearing older than me--who were all looking at their phones, consumed by what they were reading or the cat videos they were watching, ignoring those around them.

One of the biggest drawbacks I have discovered is the "tech neck" that is wrecking the posture and causing serious tightness and neck pain for folks who are constantly looking down at their phones or other screens. I am embarrassed to say it's something I struggle with, though a week of vacation last month (in which I largely stayed off my phone) really seemed to help.

I remember fighting the trend to get a smart phone many years ago and was one of the last ones to do so. I didn't want to become dependent on one, and didn't want to be one of "those people" were obsessed about their phones all the time. But here I am, caught up in the same web as everyone else.

For whatever it's worth, I did get a new phone this week, and I am back online and functioning "normally," whatever that means. But I do have a new resolve to pull away from my phone--when possible--and try to make sure I am experiencing the real world, in real time, without always staring at a screen. If you have struggled with this as I have, I hope you'll join me in pulling back a little bit, especially for this season of Advent.

More than anything, I am reminded that I want to be dependent--in a good way--on the Lord, and not on some makeshift "idol" that I carry around in my pocket. He is with me all the time, is always ready to commune and communicate with me, gives me all the direction I will ever need, and never crashes or lets me down. Why would I ever choose a device over the Divine?

I pray that you experience His presence in a real way today, and all through this season of Advent. I look forward to seeing you on Sunday.

--Pastor Ken