(3) Technology is a very useful tool; it is a horrible master.
It’s been said before, and rightly so: Technology is a tool, not a master. It cannot dictate our lives. We cannot be frozen without it.
(4) Alerts are mislabeled: They are interruptions.
I used to have alerts for pretty much everything. New email? Alert. Someone tweets at me? Alert. Facebook like? Alert. Breaking News? Alert. You get the idea. You can guess what would happen. My phone would beep and buzz all day long. Then I’d get curious, “What is it? I should really check and see.” You know what happens then right? You become enslaved to whatever alert there is. And the odds are, whatever you are working on at the moment is actually much more important than whatever else “just happened.”
A number of years ago, I began turning off alerts, one by one. At present, I have no alerts on my phone except a phone call or a text message. I cannot imagine it being any other way. If I want to know something, I go and find out, when it is convenient and appropriate. Limiting the alerts means limiting the interruptions.
(5) I don’t “need” to have email on my phone.
I used to think that I needed to have email on my phone. I felt as though if I could know something, then I should. I would check my email many, many times a day. You know what I found out when I assess this? If it was very important, somebody usually called or texted me. A lesson learned for me is, just because I have access to information does not mean that I need to know it in real-time.
Some people need to have email on their phones because of their job. My suggestion is simply this: If you don’t need to have it, then don’t have it. If you can, define the terms of your email. Perhaps you can afford a reasonable plan to check your email in the morning, at lunch and at the end of the days that you are working. This has been so very liberating for me (and my family).
(6) A pastor’s job should not be fundamentally changed by technology, but served by it.
I like to read the old guys with fantastic hair and beards. You know, the Puritans and Reformers. In so many ways, I want to be like them, emulating their commitment to Christ and his church. So, I got to wondering, how much different does my day-to-day ministry look than say, Thomas Watson? And why? Could I be a pastor in his church? Would I even know how to do it without my iPhone and laptop? In the ministry, the technology is to aid us, but I don’t think it should completely recast what we are doing so that it looks drastically different than it has throughout history.
The same could be said for being a mom. Sure, there are technological developments that enhance and simplify your life, but they do not completely reshape or replace the core elements.
(7) My phone (and technology in general) must be seen through the lenses of stewardship.
A steward is someone who is not the owner but the caretaker. He is the one who has been given something for the purposes of using it faithfully, even improving upon it, in view of giving an account. We are stewards of our lives. Therefore, everything we do should be seen in light of the reality of stewardship. Nothing, even when there appears to be nothing to do, escapes this reality.
