I had some serious time to contemplate this week during a short vacation in Santa Cruz, CA and, after some prayerful contemplation, I have to admit that I am experiencing something of a crisis in the area of my relationship with technology and the current cultural trend of constant movement and busyness.  I wouldn't call this burnout but more of an existential frustration with being "plugged in."

Here's my beef: no matter where I am, what I am doing, or how I am doing it, there is a device demanding my attention.  As I sat on the beach with my good friend Michael Spotts and took some breaths without worrying about the internet, the telephone, the car or my next appointment I realized that I hadn't actually stopped to breathe and regain my composure without a device nearby or an imminent task in at least 8 months.

How can we live with this?  How can we even stay in a close relationship with Christ when we have nothing but incessant movement, a list of things to do, a linked up computer and a telephone in our pocket?  I have no doubt in my mind of the usefulness of these things in staying connected to the greater world but I have no clue how to keep a tension with them.  How ought we to relate to technology?  How ought we to relate to the brain-frying pace of life in civilized society?

Though I am not entirely certain that there is one overarching and universal answer, and remain mostly clueless and frustrated in my search for a proper tension, I think it wise to err on the side of the monks.

I don't suggest a lifestyle of slothful laziness (to which some monkery degraded), nor do I suggest a lifestyle of total asceticism and disconnection from society (though it sounds undeniably attractive in the current situation).  However, I do suggest a lifestyle devoid, or at least trimmed, of the incessant.  I think that we as Protestants (if you are Protestant and reading this) would be wise to healthfully consider the words and rule of St. Benedict, "Idleness is the enemy of the soul.  Therefore, the brothers should be occupied according to schedule in either manual labor or holy reading."1  Yes, they had a schedule.  Yes, they had things to do.  Yes, they even had some form of the technology of the day.  But their schedule, their list, and their technology had one main aim: God.  Nothing got in the way of the pursuit of God as misguided as it may or may not have been.  They had hours and hours to pray and read and worship and work.  Where are the hours in our schedule to pray and read and worship?  We have a whole lot of work and busyness in our schedules, we have a whole lot of idleness in our schedules, but for some reason we see prayer and worship and study as things which have to be spontaneous and cannot be scheduled.  How did the monks do it?  Benedict suggested that his monks should work for around six to eight hours (taking breaks to pray), read for two or three (taking breaks to pray), eat for one or two (while someone read a Christian book in the background), pray for one or two, engage in daily corporate worship for one or two, and then sleep for whatever was left over.  This was all to be conducted in virtual silence and was once considered the most godly form of living.  It was a legitimate and sane lifestyle that included a vow of poverty and the abandonment of ownership of property.  It was a highly balanced lifestyle that abhorred the incessant and valued that which mattters most: God, the Bible, and community.

While I don't think we need to return to the old Monasticism (God forbid!) or that we need to create a new monsaticism (a la some misguided Emergents), I do suggest that we stop wasting our time on mere trifles and order our existence with the understanding that everything we do here is temporary and that what we put into our souls and our minds is going to dictate how we live our daily lives.

If we go on living in the incessant we will continue to experience burnout and emptiness.  If we do not at least evaluate our relationship to technology and culture we will continue to experience incredible spiritual frustration.  If I personally don't make room in this non-stop manner of life for silence and solitude and if I don't work to eliminate both furious activity and shiftless idleness, will it be 8 more months until I find time to rest my mind and focus silently on the work of Christ in prayer and solitude?  For the love of God, I hope not.

Pray.  Read.  Contemplate.  Fear God.  We need to do it a lot more than we currently are.

Loving the Almighty YHWH with you friends,

R. D. Thompson

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1 St. Benedict, The Rule of St. Benedict, trans. Anthony C. Meisel and M. L. del Mastro (New York: Doubleday, 1975), 86.