HAVE you ever asked these
questions: How does God manage to listen to all the prayers of
all the people praying to Him? How does He keep up with all the
prayers directed to Him? How can He respond to them all at the
same time? Does He have some assistants to help Him?
We may smile at these questions with the insights of age, though
we really don't know the answers too, for we are dealing with
the mystery of God's infinite nature. Imagine if God were to go
high-tech and offered an email address (e.g. God@heaven.eternity
) that we can use to reach Him. Would God answer all the unimaginably
large number of emails that He would receive? Alas, God does not
have an email address.
Even if God had an email address, I believe his habits - of answering
prayers - would remain the same. He would answer some emails immediately,
but take His time to answer others, sometimes even taking years,
not that He does not care or is unaware of the situation. And
yet in the case of others, He would give the impression that He
does not want to answer them at all. He either has more important
things to do, or the emails are not in line with His larger purposes.
We could learn from God.
We live today in a communication saturated world - mobile phones,
emails, instant messaging systems, and the like. All this is fine,
as far as efficient communication goes. But are we really connected
where it matters? We may be connected to the world, but not as
well to God and to our own inner selves.
Take emails as an example. More than a decade ago, life was simpler.
Mail was slower. We had more time to think. But in slightly more
than a decade we are now caught in a high-strung world of electronic
email clogging up our attention. When emails began to appear in
our daily routines, they introduced a welcome ease and efficiency
in communication. Once used by scientists to communicate with
one another, they have now become an essential part of almost
everyone's daily life. While they still help us a great deal in
our work and to keep in touch with friends around the world, there
are also many downsides to emails.
One big downside is that we are increasingly subject to what we
used to call the "tyranny of the urgent". The emails
that we receive come knocking on our doors demanding urgent attention
and immediate responses. As a result the important things are
left undone. Emails can distract us from our larger purposes,
and our more important tasks such as our relationship with God
and family members.
Many people spend far too much time reading and answering emails.
What makes this worse is a kind of addiction to emails. Notice
how people tend to check their emails every so often. A daily
routine for many is to check emails at frequent intervals, with
breaks in between to get some other work done.
We are becoming a society of email slaves. Emails have erased
healthy boundaries between work and home, between work and leisure.
Because of email, people are in work mode all the time, answering
emails even in the middle of the night, or during their holiday
breaks. Who is to blame? Our workplaces that want to invade our
every space, or our own addiction to work and the need to be in
touch?
ANOTHER phenomenon comes from the ease of sending copies of
emails to as many people as one wishes. Often one is dragged forcibly
to overhear what in effect is a private conversation. Why this
electronic exhibitionism? Also, we receive other forms of unwanted
emails - spam mail. In fact a large chunk of our emails are of
such nature. They rob us of our time and energy.
It is time to stop on our tracks,
even if it is but for a moment, and to examine our ways. As Haggai
the prophet said to the Jewish exiles who got so little for putting
in so much: "Give careful thought to your ways." (Hag.
1:5).
The downside of emails is so great that sometimes I think seriously
of quitting the email world, but two reasons have held me back.
Firstly, the modern workplace is built around electronic communication;
it would be difficult or impossible to work without emails. Perhaps
we can quit emails when we are no longer at the workplace. But
then, there is the second reason. Emails do make it easy to keep
in touch with others.
Short of living a less stressful email-free life, we can still
take certain measures to ensure that we do not drown in an email
deluge.
We must learn to fast from emails from time to time. How about
resisting the temptation to read and respond to emails on Sundays,
in keeping with the spirit of the Sabbath? When you go on holidays
breaks, leave your emails behind. Set aside some limited time
to work on your emails each day and avoid constantly checking
your emails (unless this is your main work). It is difficult but
we must break free from this addiction.
It is a wise thing to learn from God Himself. How does He answer
all the prayers that are directed at Him? And I am sure He receives
a lot of "spam mail" too. He answers some, delays answering
others, and possibly passes by others - at His own pace, and in
line with His bigger and more eternal purposes. And in His own
unique incarnational way, He prefers face-to-face relational encounters.
This wisdom is reflected in Quentin Schultze's book, Habits of
the High-Tech Heart; Schultze shows the need for being and character
in our high-tech world. He observes that we would know "if
we listen to the pace and tenor of our high-tech lives - that
we are growing increasingly hurried and anxious".
Our technological tools and toys, useful as they are, have a knack
for constantly interrupting our lives and robbing us of our true
journeys. To adapt what the Lord taught to our high-tech world,
"What does it profit a man if he is connected to the whole
world, but loses his own soul?" (Mk. 8:36). Let us say "no"
to the hurried, distracted, addicted, interrupted, and wasted
life.
QUOTE:
EMAIL SLAVES
'We are becoming a society of email slaves. Emails have
erased healthy boundaries between work and home, between work
and leisure. Because of email, people are in work mode all the
time, answering emails even in the middle of the night, or during
their holiday breaks.'