Technology is really cool. Just think of all the “technological” advancements that have taken place throughout the centuries that have improved life in some form or fashion. You don’t have to walk outside in the winter to use the restroom thanks to indoor plumbing. A minor explosion occurs in your car every time to start it and you aren’t afraid of it getting out of hand AND your car will take you where you want to go. Can’t find your way out of a paper bag? Now your map is actually able to give you verbal directions while you’re driving; you don’t have to pull over on the side of the road to figure out which way Rand and McNally are telling you to go.
But with every technological advancement, something is also lost.* We don’t remember anything any more because Google is in our pocket. We don’t know phone numbers any more because Siri can do the work for us. And we don’t know what sword drills are because the app on our phone knows better than we do where to find Obadiah or Philemon.
I contend that that is a loss, and a disappointing one at that. While I realize many people, perhaps even the majority of people, are doing all their interaction with God’s word via a handheld device (iPhone or iPad or their equivalent), and love the convenience of that technology, I’m here to argue against it.
Let me give you just a few reasons why I’d recommend using an actual, physically bound Bible.**
First, using a device means we lose context. If you’re reading on a phone, you can only see a few verses at a time; you have no idea where you are in relation to the rest of the Bible. However, if you’ve got your Bible open on your lap, you have a sense of how much comes before the passage you’re reading and how much is yet to come. Although not completely foolproof, you are aware, even if only subconsciously, where the book of the Bible you’re reading falls in redemptive history. Open to 1 Samuel 17 and you can see that there’s still a lot of Old Testament yet to come. Read Romans and you can see that you’re after the Old Testament and after the earthly life of Jesus.
Second, sometimes on Sundays (and, I confess, this should probably happen more often), the sermon text alone isn’t enough. We might, from time to time, switch from one passage to another or from the Old to the New Testament to see how the rest of Scripture uses the text we are expounding that particular day. Imagine a room full of Bibles with pages flipping from Psalms to Romans. There’s an encouragement to others hearing pages turn.
Finally, I wonder how committed we are to shutting off all notifications during morning worship. Have we really told Siri to leave us alone during this hour? Are we prepared to ignore the ESPN and Fox News announcements? What about our Eastern Time Zone friends; are they paying attention to the clock when they send that text message? I know I’m WAY too easily distracted to ignore the random things showing up on my phone that don’t matter when I’m gathering with the saints for corporate worship. Maybe the solution is to mute the phone (we ought to be doing this anyway) and turn on Do Not Disturb until we leave. Or, to kick it up a notch, maybe we should leave our phones in the car where they can’t distract us from the most important hour of our week.
Technology is a great tool and has benefited all of us immensely. However, I wonder if, from time to time, we shouldn’t ask ourselves, “Does the potential benefit outweigh the potential loss?” This might be one of those occasions where the answer is, “Maybe not so much.”
*I recently read something that prompted this thought, this connection between technological improvements also leading to something being lost. However, I can’t remember who or what it came from, so I can’t give the credit I’d like to give.
** No, I’m not keeping track of who’s using what on Sunday mornings, so this isn’t aimed at you.