A healthy diet.

Today was podcast day around my house :) As I cleaned my home and got ready for spring and rearranged and went through my check list of things that had to get finished in order for me to work another day from home I turned on my computer and listened to two GREAT podcasts. The second podcast I had on but I wasn't really listening to it until it was about halfway through. Shane Hipps was speaking at Mars Hill Bible Church and was talking about media and technology and how it affects our spiritual life. It is funny that I was listening to it via podcast on my computer (technology). As I wrapped up my cleaning and Shane (yea I'm on a first name basis with him lol) began to wrap up his teaching I was ready to throw the towel in and take a break from the technology around me. I've done that before given up texting, instant messaging, facebook, and email for a week. My professor who wanted to email my take home final to me thought I had serious issues when I told him I had given it up this week and that I was going to need a printed version lol. I thought surely it was time for another break. When Shane said this....

"My hope is not that you develop some naive strategy of resistance to technology, my hope is that you develop an awareness a new way of viewing and understanding the world... Discern that your technology diet is not unlike your food diet. That if my diet consists of a disproportionate amount of ice cream and cotton candy I will be malnourished and quite flabby.
And if you and your relationships are comprised of a disproportionate amount of mediated communication. You will be relational, spiritually, and emotionally malnourished and your gospel impact will be flabby at best. I don't know how to incarnate Jesus over email. The ultimate expression of God's love in the world is to be with, is to be present, incarnate and so may you go into the world as the physical body of Jesus in a disembodied world, may you incarnate Christ in a disincarnate age. You are the message of the Gospel. "

It is not necessarily for me to give it all up because it all has its place however it is necessary for me to re-evaluate how much I rely on it. If I choose to email, call, or text a friend it should be no surprise to me that we never get together. We have no reason for a face to face when we've already caught up over the telephone. Instead the phone call should be comprised of setting up a time to get together for coffee or a meal . As the movie Smart People said " a face to face conversation". (I am not endorsing that movie, it wasn't great but the soundtrack was.)

Just something to think about.