The Burden of the Bible?

The world is growing more and more in its use of technology and the church has jumped on this train of gigabytes and power points. That's no big thing, as I'm able to follow along in my notes on the sermon, see the lyrics for our worship songs, etc.

But lately, when I glance around, I find most people with their heads bent over their smart phones. No, the sixty-year-old piano teacher isn't texting her girlfriends during church- and neither is her husband planning a hunting getaway with his buddies! Rather, they were all scrolling over their Bible app, reading the verses off their screens.

These actions seem consistent with the pace that the rest of the world is running right now. Everything- EVERYTHING- is wrenched into one's phone. There's the Dictionary app, MapQuest, Facebook, Youtube, Candy Crush, the list goes on. It only makes sense that a Bible app is exists too. Yet... there is something that doesn't sit right with me about it.

When you go to church, what runs through your mind? The things you got done before heading out, the things you need to get done afterwards? Church, as I've come to see it, is that time where you drop all of those worries and rushes at the door and enter in for some time that's about you and becoming heavily-soaked in God's word. I've also come to believe that God knows we need to take time out of our schedules (even on a Sunday) to come to church.

He wants church to be a conscious effort to put down our busy lives and focus solely on Him for a time. A time that sticks out in our minds, following us around throughout the rest of the week. I wonder if carrying the weight of an actual Bible into church isn't part of that. Yes, it's bulky, it's falling apart, it can be lengthy to leaf through...

But IT IS God's Word!

We shouldn't think about God's Word as something that's convenient or easy to use. It's something separate from the way the world works; that's the gist of our Christian witness. Your Bible is a key that helps to open our hearts to God's message. It's both essential and uniquely fitted to guide and comfort us in our otherwise nonsensical weeks.

Technology gets the praise that it makes things easier, handier, smaller... a lot of '-ers'. I tend to cringe away from these words, as it's been my experience that these traits don't always equal something better (and NO, this opinion is in no way influenced by the number of times I've watched Terminator!). I can't say that it's a bad thing to have the Bible app on your phone, making God's word more accessible across the globe. Yet it remains something that tickles my brain, makes me think of the way that I live out my faith.

Even in something as simple as carrying a four-pound, duct-taped Bible into church.

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'Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.'
~Joshua 1:8~