On Stewardship and Our Digital Lives
By: Sean Scott
Do you have a good relationship with your phone and other technology?
Maybe you are thinking “oh here we go again.” I fully understand that sentiment, but I think the direction of this post may surprise you. I would encourage you to stop and examine your own heart and its relationship to your devices – whatever that may be.
My iPhone has a tracking mechanism for my Screen Time. I can look up detailed reports on my phone usage, average time per day with my phone open, how many times I pick it up per hour, what apps are dominating that share of screen time, and more.
I think in evaluating my own “screen time” I have realized that more important than the ability to be wise and winsome once online, is facing whether I am stewarding the time given to me to serve King Jesus while still here on Earth and whether I should be online at any given moment in the first place.
C.S. Lewis, in The Screwtape Letters, talks about the idea of stewardship related to time. For those who have not read The Screwtape Letters before, Lewis writes from the perspective of one of Satan’s allies, speaking to an assistant of his who would do spiritual battle with a Christian “subject” in their day to day life. He says:
“…nothing throws him into a passion so easily as to find a tract of time which he reckoned on having at his own disposal unexpectedly taken from him. It is the unexpected visitor, or the friend’s talkative wife, that throw him out of gear … They anger him because he regards his time as his own and feels that it is being stolen. You must therefore zealously guard in his mind the curious assumption ‘My time is my own’. Let him have the feeling that he starts each day as the lawful possessor of twenty-four hours.”
Lewis goes on…
“The man can neither make, nor retain, one moment of time; it all comes to him by pure gift”
Our enemy is warring with us daily. One battle is convincing us that we OWN our time. This excerpt above highlights that we have it wrong if we consider the time given to us to be ours.
As followers of Jesus we share in a sacred and clear “job description” and have been given a huge command from Matthew 28 to clarify the purpose of every believer:
“And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20
To my main point: Are we using the time given to us to go about our lives as a lived expression of Jesus’ story and share Jesus in word or deed?
Digital Minimalism
I found help in this area in a surprising place. Cal Newport wrote a book called “Digital Minimalism” where he proposes a framework for reforming our lives online and to editorialize, reforming our entire approach to technology and devices. Having such a framework is important because as Bill Maher states, “Philip Morris (the tobacco company) just wanted your lungs. The App Store wants your soul.”
Those are powerful words from someone who has made his fortune on having a television program. Newport points out that:
“We signed up for these services and bought these devices for minor reasons – to look up friends’ relationship statuses or eliminate the need to carry a separate iPod and phone – and then found ourselves, years later, increasingly dominated by their influence, allowing them to control more of how we spend our time, how we feel, and how we behave.” (p. 11)
Cal Newport’s understanding of stewardship is helpful for someone like me. I want to actively submit myself to the Lord, especially in how I use the time given to me.
Newport asserts as he lays out his philosophy:
“To reestablish control, we need to move beyond tweaks and instead rebuild our relationship with technology from scratch, using our deeply held values as a foundation.” (p.28)
Having a philosophy of how we do ministry, for example, is important to keep the church focused on the main thing. Ultimately, if we are not teaching what scripture says, but depending on programs and externals for growth and success we are straying from our job description. I would argue developing a framework with guardrails related to our digital lives is crucial.
Newport offers a way forward to help develop a philosophy of digital minimalism. His stated definition is:
“A philosophy of technology use in which you focus your online time on a smaller number of carefully selected and optimized activities that strongly support things you value, and then happily miss out on everything else.”(p.28)
He goes on to explain why to start with values and work towards choices that flow out of those values:
“By working backward from their deep values to their technology choices, digital minimalists transform these innovations from a source of distraction into tools to support a life well lived.” (p.29)
And pits this idea against the carelessness with which we end up adding things to our already heaping plate of technologies:
“This minimalist philosophy contrasts starkly with the maximalist philosophy that most people deploy by default – a mindset in which any potential benefit is enough to start using a technology that catches your attention.” (p.29)
I don’t have time to expand on all of Newport’s ideas, but I would encourage you to examine your relationship to your devices and pick up a copy of this book if you’re interested in thinking about reforming your digital habits.
In discussing this post with Pastor Dan, he brought up this question that is perhaps a good starting point when considering whether your relationship with technology needs reforming: Is your soul flourishing online?
As Paul says in Philippians: “If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me.” (Phil. 1:22) and my hope is that my life will be fruitful for the sake of the Gospel. And while a painful thing to admit since there are some pretty cool innovations out there, I want Jesus to help me remove anything that takes me away from my purpose of sharing the good news with others. Grace and strength to you in this fight!