A life without margins

‘And the Lord shall guide you continually and satisfy you in drought and in dry places and make strong your bones. And you shall be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not.’ (Isaiah 58:11)

Communication technology has such a profound effect on our lives. All of us in this part of the world would rather own a smart phone than anything else. Some probably can’t imagine lives without these communication gadgets. May be losing one’s wallet is not so ’inconvenience’ as compared to losing one’s ‘contacts’ stored in these electronic devices. Apple Inc is doing so well exactly because Steve Jobs knew far ahead of his competitors what the consumers wanted. 

Easy accessibility of being connected round the clock leaving us opens to intrusions. I find myself have this compulsion to check my messages as soon as I wake up or when I go to bed. If I am also ‘addicted’ to facebook like others, I think I will be driven to exhaustion. A life without margins is a life rapidly approaching chaos. It is very common nowadays that even in a family get-together meal, each family member is so absorbed in ‘communicating’ with their hand phones instead of with each other. It has becoming increasingly difficult to put down one’s hand phone and devote wholeheartedly to something without being distracted. The quality of time has been compromised as a result of too much convenience. Frankly speaking, other than to be connected in case of emergency, do we really need to attend to these calls, messages or email on an urgent basis? How we used these gadgets determined whether they brought good or distraction to our lives. We do need disciplines if we are serious about creating space for our spiritual needs, rest, leisure, and relationships. How we spent the first moments of day can set the tone of the whole day, that is, how one begins a day. We may have to resort to unplug these devices at an appropriate moment to find solitude and silence which we badly need in order to slow down our body, mind and soul to reclaim space. 

God creates us for community. This need is built into our DNA. I need to remind myself nothing beat the beauty of physical presence of another person, the depth of communication and eye contacts which are something that can never be taken over by the communication gadgets. I realised that I don’t need to check emails throughout the day. There will always be news and updates. So many times browsing the internet for something useful often lures me into more web sites than I originally intended to, so I really need to learn to draw a boundary.