There are many aspects of contemporary technology that I enjoy. I am a bit of a gadget guy. I like having devices and learning how to use them. But there are some things about all of our technology that occasionally get the best of me.

Decades ago we lived in North Dakota. We had a home telephone. The number was published in the directory and we had an office phone. There was no such thing as voice mail and we didn’t have answering machines at either place. People in town generally knew that if we didn’t answer the phone at home or at the church we were likely to do so in a little while. I remember thinking that being a small town pastor meant that I was always on call. Everyone in town knew my home phone number. If they wanted to talk to me and I wasn’t at the office, they simply called me at home. It didn’t matter if their concern was something that could be easily handled the next day, they called when they were thinking of it. And we always answered the phone if it rang. In those days I was a volunteer for the local ambulance squad. When it was my turn to be on call for the ambulance, I had to go to the hospital, pick up a beeper, and carry it with me wherever I went. The beeper only worked within a reasonable distance from town, and I had to be able to get to the hospital in a hurry if paged, so when I was on call I never left town. At the time I sometimes felt pinned down. We used to say that in order to take a day off we had to leave town.

Now I long for those days.

When I am on call I carry my smartphone. I can go almost anywhere I want and be constantly available. The phone has e-mail capacity so that I can check my e-mail. It has voice mail so that people can leave me a message if I am talking with someone else. It has call waiting, so I know when someone is trying to get in touch with me while I am talking to someone else.

I can pick up my phone to check in with a family member and within a few seconds I can be aware of a half dozen other people who are trying to get in touch with me. These days, leaving town is no guarantee of a day off.

When we first moved to South Dakota, I said that I was reluctant to get a cell phone. The phones that were available at the time were bag phones. They didn’t fit into pockets and had limited battery capacity. We referred to them as car phones. I told people that I needed to have some place in my life where I could get away from the phone and the car was a good place. Then I got a cell phone and the cell phones got smaller and smaller. And they started to build more and more towers. When I started using a cell phone, it wouldn’t work at camp, or at the lake, or in many places in the open country. I didn’t mind it. I enjoyed getting away from time to time.

But the world changed. And I changed, too.

These days I turn off my phone during worship services. I don’t take it with me when I go out in the canoe, but that it about it. The rest of the time I’m on call 24/7. I know I don’t have to constantly check my e-mail and I try to take breaks from it from time to time, but like to be available for my family. Most of the members of the congregation are very good about calling the office when they have routine business, but some only have my cell phone number in their cell phones.

I’ve discovered that the youth in our church have different ways of dealing with this constant connectivity. Some of them don’t answer their phones when they ring, or at least use the caller id display to screen their calls. There are quite a few youth in our group who never check their voice mail. If we ask them about it, they say, “If you wanted to get ahold of me, why didn’t you send a text.” We have to know which method is the best to get a message to them. They simply don’t use all of the technologies that are available to them as a way of setting some boundaries and keeping some distance.

I haven’t learned how to do that, yet. I feel that I need to respond quickly to every voice mail and every text and every e-mail. It seems that in order to stay connected we need to use all of the available technologies. But I observe that others are learning to establish better boundaries.

Throughout the generations, our people have always had to struggle to find solitude. Being alone is necessary to develop our relationship with God. When Moses began to lead the people through the wilderness, there were so many demands that he had trouble finding time to just be alone with God. When he did take time to be with God, it seemed that the people always got into trouble. It took some time before the system of judges was established and he learned that no one can be all things to all people.

The lessons I need to learn are not new. The technology is new, but the basic principles haven’t changed. I need time when I am alone with my private thoughts and prayers. I need time when I am deeply present with others and invested in relationships. And I need time when I am productive. Most of all I need balance. Inappropriate use my gadgets can throw me out of balance. I need to give myself permission to sometimes not be available. Not to do so is to shortchange my time with God.

Looking at it that way, the messages can stay in my in box for a while longer.

Copyright © 2013 by Ted Huffman. I wrote this. If you want to copy it, please ask for permission. There is a contact me button at the bottom of this page. If you want to share my blog a friend, please direct your friend to my web site.