Idols for Distraction

I’m old, old enough to remember party lines, person-to-person long distance calls and rotary phones. I remember when cordless phones were new and exciting. I’m old enough to remember being called to a ministry wide meeting wherein we were all informed of the soon coming of the world wide web, and just what had Al Gore wrought. I’m old enough to remember dial-up, free AOL floppy discs. I’m old enough to remember brick sized cell phones, the first clam shells and the first cameras.

Today it is not enough that we should have phones that can call anyone in the country. It is not enough that our phones contain cameras more precise than professionals used only a decade ago. It is not enough that our web connections have done away with inch-by-inch page changes and now stream HD videos without breaking a sweat. No, the real revolution is here- that now we can do all this virtually anywhere. We no longer have to wait until we can get wired in, nor even until we can tie into wifi. With 5G everything the internet has to offer can be sourced wherever we go.

What do we do with these capabilities? Post pictures of our lunch. Create videos wherein we dance and lip sync to the latest hits or our skateboard entries into the Darwin awards. Read tribal gossip and engage in verbal warfare with other tribes. Check our fantasy football rosters. There is nothing inherently evil in engaging in theological discussion with strangers, or dancing or photography or fantasy football. There’s certainly nothing wrong with lunch. Perhaps the real problem is simply the distraction. What does it say about the state of our souls that we invest so many hours in things that, even if they are not morally objectionable, are utterly insignificant?

I suspect that what it reveals is that we do not want to have revealed to us the hard truths about what we are. I suspect that these idols for distraction are just another Romans 1 suppression engine. Paul there tells us that we all know, through the created order, that there is a Creator and that we fall short of His demands. Rather than repenting we seek to suppress these unpleasant truths, to keep them out of our consciousness. Our consciences, in a word, cannot bear being conscious. And thus was born Candy Crush.

It is all too easy, especially for me, to respond to contemporary tech with all the gentle manners of a curmudgeon. Such is not my goal. Nor am I merely scolding smart phones. Rather, I’m preaching to myself the importance of meditating on God’s Word. I’m confessing my own propensity to pursue mental baubles. What does it say about believers, like me, who have every reason to enter fully into the joy of the Good News are just as likely to drown out God’s message as those still hearing only bad news? What is says is we need to repent and believe the gospel.