WEB OF LIES

I’d like to preface this by saying, this is my opinion. While I feel that technology and social media are key to living in today’s world and while there are some good things that can come from the web and hand held devices, I feel that there is more harm being done to the masses. What if everyone that picked up their device, picked up the Bible instead?

Picture this:

You’re at a sporting event supporting a child and you look around and all you see are people hovered by the nearest power outlet on their devices as they are charging…. Plugged up to the power source we have deemed vital enough to take our focus off of one another and onto the device we are enchanted by. It is almost like something you would read out of a book, a fairytale. The strides we’ve made in technology. I was watching Back to The Future the other day. In 1985 Michael J. Fox was wearing a pair of tennis shoes portraying what the style would be in 2015…. they were dead on ringers for Lebron Soldiers. My mind was blown and it sparked a conviction.

From the development of ENIAC to the release of the first home computer in 1975, Americans have eagerly awaited the development of the newest, most up to date, technology. The first personal computers came as kits, MITS Altair 8800 followed by IMSAI 8080, and were introduced in 1975. You had to piece the parts together ever so strategically to ensure it would work in the end. It took some investment, a little time and energy and the masterpiece, the finished product, was yours. It’s quite fascinating you see, to see the world change and new milestones be met. Let me give you a quick breakdown, this isn’t an all-inclusive list…and from there the rest was history.

Computers

1976- Apple I (kit computer)

1977- Apple II color computer

1980- Commodore home computing

1980- Apple III RECALLED

1981- Osborne 1

1981- Epson HX-20 First laptop

1981- PC- Personal Computer created by IBM

1983- Apple’s The Lisa $10,000.00

1984- Apple Macintosh $2,500.00

Cell Phones

1960’s- Radio Common Carrier

1973- Martin Cooper (Motorola) created the first mobile telephone from handheld subscriber equipment.

1983- Motorola released a $4,000.00

Phone It took 10 years to make Cooper’s phone available to the public.

1989- Phone began to shrink in size.

2000- Nokia palm sized phone

2002- Sidekick

2002- Camera Phone released

2004- RAZR

2002- Facebook was created.

2007- The first iPhone…. This is when the phone started to evolve from a way to communicate to a tool relied on daily for all sorts of tasks.

As I sit here this morning typing away on my MacBook I am constantly drawn to my handheld device, my phone. My only, seemingly anyways, link to the outside world. My vice, my drug of choice, my sin. I can’t even for a moment type on my big device for wanting to pick up my hand held device. It draws me in, lures me by way of information. I love to learn, and it is my key to knowledge, right? It’s been engrained in our brains that Google is all knowing. It’s desensitized Americans. It’s pulled me away from my family. It’s consumed my mind. It’s become too convenient for Americans to not have personal relationships when they can simply engage via the web. Do you worry more about how many fb likes you can get rather than how many memories you can make with your children? Does you child choose electronics over time with you? Do you rely on the web to pay the bills? That’s ok to support your family, the world of technology needs computer geniuses for our economy to thrive. I’m talking about the need to be connected always and never disconnected. Do you think it’s the only means of financial survival? It’s become a god, little g, an idol to the majority of us. Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters...” Money, technology or whatever you choose as your little god. I see that device light up, and my little heart lights up like a kid at Christmas. It’s insanity and it’s got to stop.

Oh, Facebook no one wants me to mention Facebook. It hits home for you doesn’t it? It has probably at some point in your marriage or relationship become an issue. I can unfortunately admit it, it’s a problem in my house. It’s such a phenomenal way to communicate with people across the world, old school mates and family you never get to see. It allows our servicemen to talk to their families and give their spouses and kids a chance to see them. But, I see you justifying your lengthy usage of the app…. I too justify it daily. For all the good Facebook can bring, it has equal detrimental qualities. If not more. It can connect you all right, connect you straight into the emotional arms of someone you have no business talking to. It can be a weapon for predators and a link to tell the sadistic where you sleep at night. It is a tool to give people the guts to tell information that ought not be shared. What happened to wholesome privateness? What about when the desire for approval leads us to post what we can do for God? Do you do things to ‘honor’ God yet post every single one of them on fb for your daily ‘like’ fill? Does it really even mean anything? Social Media makes us brave, when the only thing that should make us brave is faith in The Lord. I know these statements to be true, I can plainly talk and relay the factual information to you, yet still I am a slave to my device, the need to know more and see more, which in turn makes me want more. I long to delete the app from my phone, but my excuse, my business and the pages I manage well they need me. They need my devotion to social media to thrive.

You see those are all the lies I tell myself to make my obsession logical. To justify what takes up a large portion of my time. I like to immerse myself in the lives of others, their “picture” perfect lives, when my children are bouncing off the walls and theirs well, they are posed ever so strategically and acting like they have some sense. It’s not reality, but this is. My reality is that I am addicted to the one thing that can absolutely destroy the human race…the need to know everything. It’s not Biblical, the need to know. Isaiah 46:9-10 “Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. 10 - I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.”

It started with the fall of satan. Isaiah 14:12-15 “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.' Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, To the lowest depths of the Pit.”

Lucifer it seems became so impressed with his own beauty, intelligence, power, and position that he began to desire for himself the honor and glory that belonged to God alone. So we see what happens when someone tries to know as much as God. It’s a tool Satan himself conjured up. He knew exactly what he was doing. Trying to weasel his way into our minds, lead us astray. Show us on social media that there are prettier and happier people than I am. There are people that make more money than I do, and there are people that are hugely more successful than I if we measure success financially. We’ve allowed him to teach our kids to become a slave to the next level, because it shuts them up and makes it easier on us. Ever try to take a device from a toddler? Little demons take over their body. It’s a time occupier. Our reliance on the newest device has made us a slave to discontentment. Discontentment does NOT come from the Lord. Ecclesiastes 5:10 “He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver; Nor he who loves abundance, with increase. This also is vanity.”

My husband turned on my screen time counter on my phone. I am embarrassed to say at the end of each week what it says. It’s horrible and embarrassing and ridiculous that the time I devote to my device, I should be devoting time to my Lord. Google, founded in 1998, gives us information at our fingertips. When was Google created? Simple, I’ll just ask Google. Relatable scripture? I’ll just google it. That’s not always a bad thing, but it prevents us from studying His Word and allowing The spirit to reveal to us what we need to know. Why is it so hard to grasp that the only device I really need is my Bible, it has all the answers I need. I’ll tell you. Americans are obsessed with time. A handheld device is a luxury that saves us time, reading the Bible takes intentional time. Time we should be intentionally taken to devote to our Lord. We need to find contentment in the unknowing, because in the all-knowing Omniscient God we find everything we will ever need to know. Exodus 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before me.”

What if we plugged into the ultimate power source and all our knowledge came directly from The Lord, unfiltered and pure? 1 John 5:21 “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”

*Timelines of computers and cell phones, oddly enough found on google.