We all know that, because of jet travel, the world has become far more familiar to many of us, and regions that were once visited only by the privileged few are now common destinations, within the reach of a significant percentage of the world’s population. This mass movement of people has had a downside, however, for diseases and problems that were once confined to one area are now readily exported to the rest of the world. In the same way, the development of the computer and the Internet over the past few years has made widespread communication possible, but again, there have been drawbacks to it. Other developments since then have gone even farther. It seems that the cell phone is now an indispensable part of life; we cannot live without it, and with prices falling, people all over the world are talking constantly with one another. Some find it almost impossible to turn their phones off, lest they miss a call. More recently, texting has become very popular with young people, even replacing actual phone calls. Many teenagers admit to texting more than 100 times per day, and for some the figure approaches 1000 times. The iPod has changed the way young people listen to music. Previously there was background music in stores and other public places. Now one can carry hundreds of tunes around in a very small device and listen at will. The addicting quality of this music means that some can scarcely endure a moment without hearing it.
The result of all this, in the words of another, has been to “unscrew the locks from the doors” and to erode privacy to the point that there is an almost total loss of solitude. All of the details of our lives are suddenly made available to others. To quote from a well-known U.S. magazine, “The computer that allowed us to stare in wonder at the world has allowed the world to stare pitilessly back at us.” Facebook has added to all this, and the possibilities are limitless. Pictures and other information posted on it can be seen within minutes by hundreds, if not thousands of people. Information that was once considered private is now posted for all to see.
The Significance of It for Us
What does all this mean for the believer? First of all, we have to recognize that it is not technology that is bad; rather, it is man’s use of it that causes the problem. The Internet has made it possible to communicate with other believers in parts of the world where postal mail would be difficult, and perhaps impossible. It has enabled us to access good ministry quickly and easily, whether written or recorded. However, we must realize the negative side to all this and react in the right way.
We must face the fact that while much good information is now available, the same technology has made a tremendous amount of bad information readily available. Temptations are there that were not there before. Even if we do not access what is clearly wrong, it is evident that Satan’s efforts in these last days are aimed at so occupying men’s minds that they will not have a moment in which to think of eternal matters. The constant barrage of either music, texting or conversation will tend to fill our time to such a degree that eternal matters will be pushed aside. Whether it is to do with “the cares of this life” or the “deceitfulness of riches,” all will combine to “choke the word, that it becometh unfruitful.” The solemn events that God is allowing, such as hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, droughts and fires, are surely intended to warn men of coming judgment, yet Satan will use this bombardment of the mind to dull their perception and keep their focus on this life.
Thankfully, some are realizing the end of all these things. Steve Jobs, who was largely responsible for most of the success of the Apple computer company, had this to say shortly before his death last year: “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life, because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.”
It is to be hoped that what is truly important to him included some earnest thinking about his eternal destiny. When someone asked him about his achievements, and particularly about the wealth he had accumulated, he is reported to have remarked, “There is no advantage to being the richest man in the cemetery.” However, the believer is not immune to all these inducements, although he has a heavenly hope. The spirit of the world around has a strong tendency to influence us, and it is easy to be caught up in the things “which are seen,” rather than focusing on “the things which are not seen.”
Dependence on God
Francois Fenelon, a godly Christian who lived in France more than 300 years ago, captured the thought of fellowship with the Lord very well, when he said: “A general rule for the good use of time is to accustom oneself to live in continual dependence on God, receiving from the Spirit of God moment to moment whatever it pleases Him to give us, referring to Him at once in the doubts which we necessarily run into, turning to Him in the weakness into which goodness slips from exhaustion, call on Him and lifting oneself to Him, when the heart, swept away by material things, sees itself led imperceptibly off the path and finds itself forgetting and drifting away from God.”
We may well admire his devotedness, and especially when we consider that he was brought up and remained a Roman Catholic all his life. The various technological advances about which we have been speaking, if used as the world uses them, would surely predicate against this communion with the Lord and would rather occupy us first with ourselves and then with a world that is soon to pass away. There is no need to share with an ever-increasing number of people all the details of our lives or to talk continually about things which, at best, have to do with life down here. It is only the things of Christ that will endure for eternity, and our exercise should be to use our time to the fullest advantage in those things, in order to be like those who are “laying by for themselves a good foundation for the future, that they may lay hold of what is really life” (1 Tim. 6:19 JND).
W. J. Prost