If you and I intend to have wholesome, satisfying family relationships, we'll have to manage the impact of the technological explosion on our lives. Failure to limit these influences on our lives accounts for a part of the discouraging family statistics of our day.
We live in an unprecedented period of world history; technology is burgeoning like bacteria. This exponential expansion of technology has stretched the potential for good and for evil in equal proportion.
Most human inventions are neither good nor bad in themselves. Consider the printing press. Gutenberg invented his press with the vision of mass-producing the Bible. To be sure, printing technology has wonderfully aided the spread of all kinds of truth in our world. This same technology, however, has been used for far less noble, even ignoble, purposes.
All of this new technology makes possible many new options, and wisdom draws us to make good decisions about them. As our human technology expands, so grows our moral responsibility for its use. All morality springs from this self-evident truth: the mere fact that a given thing can be done does not mean it should be done. In other words, ability and advisability are not necessarily one and the same. Scripture assures us that, even though permissible, an act many not be beneficial. (1 Cor 10:23)
Technology enables us to do many things that are not wise to do. It offers us 24-7 entertainment and communication options.
Embracing all of this we are able, however, is most unwise.
We have a choice. To appropriately exercise that choice is the moral imperative of the day. We must master the technology and not let it distract or destroy us. Our task is much greater than merely avoiding the blatantly bad stuff. To live in a reasonably wholesome balance in the 21 st Century, we'll have to make some hard decisions to keep even that which is good from displacing the best.
Sir, if you want a quality relationship with God, your spouse, parents, children, siblings, and friends, you cannot afford to watch all the sports available on the networks, ESPN, and ESPN2. Dear lady, neither can you watch all the interesting documentaries, latest movies, popular sit-coms, music specials, and even Christian programs, if you intend to build and maintain quality relationships.
I have discovered that to have a good life with my wife, I have to spend more time with her than I do with Letterman or Leno. If I want to know what my kids think, I have to spend more time with them than I do with Rush, Oprah and Dr. Phil.
Technology creators typically offer us help. The cell phone can be turned off. The answering machine can be turned on. The computer and television have on/off switches, so we can appropriately put them in the "off" position.
Still, we have to exercise the wisdom to do the right turning. How much time we spend on the phone, on the computer, watching T.V., and playing video games, is a critical moral choice. We can't make the wrong decisions here and get the desired outcome for our families.
Please read with an open heart the following prayer by the Apostle Paul: "[I pray] that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ . . ." (PHIL 1:9,10) Now, would you pray that meaty prayer for yourself - regularly?
Dane Tyner is founder and director of Home Improvement Ministry, a Christian family counseling service in Tulsa, OK.The ministry website is http://www.forhim.org.
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