Trading My Xbox

While doing some serious YouTube surfing this week, I stumbled upon this video I found at allaboutworship.com. It is called Trading My XBOX and is a response to Darrell Evan’s song, Trading My Sorrows. It poses the question about the place that “things” have in our lives. Are all the “things” in our lives stumbling blocks to us or are they all useful to us? I’ll admit that I’m a techno-freak in the making, and left to my own devices (well, literally and figuratively), I could inch my way off the path that draws me closer to Christ. I don’t have an Xbox or gaming “things”, but I keep my iPhone on, I twitter, my laptop is ever at the ready, and spend a bit of time online every day. Not saying that as a pro or con regarding technology, but I simply pose a question: What are you doing with your technology? Does it aid in or hinder your relationship with Christ and with others we are called to love?

I figure that if nature can praise God (You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. -Isaiah 55:12 NIV) that technology should too. Is your phone only used for gossip or judgmental texting about someone you dislike? Does the Xbox provide you with an excuse to ignore the other people in the room for hours every day? Does time online replace time visiting with people in your family, your friends, your community? Does the “daily Bible verse” you get in email on Sunday morning become your “out” for sleeping in instead of worshiping in a community of faith? Is your only connection to other people merely twittering?

What if… (thinking caps on now) what if we used our technology to reach out to people with words of grace, hope, comfort, encouragement, and then spend time with them in person (of course, if that is possible- doesn’t take into account folks you meet across the country/world). What if we utilize online Bible study and take that knowledge out into the world? What if we become so focused on Christ’s mission in the world (both as individuals and as a community) that our joy spilled out into everything we do, even in our day to day communications.

Jesus used everything around him to speak about the love of God: flowers, birds, vineyards, a plank, sheep. He spent time with people. He also spent time alone in prayer. Why shouldn’t Christ-followers do the same? What are you willing to trade in for time with God?