no tech tuesday {join the movement}

A friend of mine mentioned in-passing the other day that it was “no tech Tuesday” for her and her kids. And I couldn’t stop thinking about that concept: no technology for a day. Maybe because part of me craves a Downton Abbey-ish world of no or little technology. Or maybe because I feel like technology has the ability to suck out my brain cells if I let it. Either way, I latched onto the idea.

I mean, there’s so much good that comes from technology. Like my Keurig, for example. Glorious technology. But if I don’t set boundaries, technology — and all things online — has the power to take control of my time and my heart’s meditations. Yet I only want One taking up the primary space of my heart’s meditations.

 

 

It’s like what I told my kids the other day. Whatever or whoever we most think about, becomes what we most talk about, reflects what or who we practically worship.

If I’m thinking most about my next status update or my email inbox or who liked me in the online space, then I’m ascribing the greatest worth to…me. In all practicalities, I’m worshipping me. And that’s flat out demented.

But if I’m thinking most about my God and what He’s saying and all He’s worth and where He’s leading and how He wants to love my family and my world through me, then He’s the One I’m worshipping. And that’s when my soul finds the greatest fulfillment.

I’m not saying that we consciously mean to make technology an idol of worship. We don’t. We’re Christians who want to follow Jesus. But technology has this way of seeping in and taking charge. And if we don’t tell it how far it can go and what it’s allowed to do when it gets there, then it will end up with the reins.

 

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Colossians 3:16-17

 

So I asked my friend this past weekend, “Is that ‘no-tech Tuesday’ thing some movement I don’t know about, or did you make it up?” She said she made it up. So I asked her if I could make it a movement here on my blog. She was all for it. So here we are.

There aren’t any rules to join the movement. You don’t even have to choose Tuesday. There aren’t even any requirements except that we want to be the ones in charge of the technology in our lives, and in the lives of our children, rather than it having control over us. And one way I’m personally going to do that, is by implementing a no tech Tuesday in my home.

For us it will mean that until further notice, there will be no t.v., no internet, and…no Angry Birds on Tuesdays. Will they survive. Instead we will practice purposefully looking each other in the eyes, creating from scratch, and generally living undistracted.

I told my kids about the plan and they lost all good sense for a minute. But after the wailing and gnashing of teeth, they finally quieted under the impending regulations. And I trust that eventually, they will thank me for it.

 
Fill me, Lord…

How do you keep from being swallowed up with technology?
Oh and…who’s coming with me?