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Piloting PROGRESS OVERLOAD
Somehow the more we invent technology to do the work, the harder we work.
Have you ever had one of those mornings when you were forty-five minutes late to work because you ran out of cash and had to stop by the ATM machine, but it was out of cash so you drove to the grocery – only to find the magnetic strip on your card had worn out and you couldn't use it anymore? In desperation, you tried to call your boss from your cell phone, but it wouldn't work because when you last used it you didn't have time to recharge the battery.
Progress has given us unprecedented comforts and conveniences designed to make life easier. Pagers, cell phones, lap tops, and debit cards are supposed to bear the brunt of our stress. Yet somehow the more we invent technology to do the work, the harder we work.
"Why do so many of us feel like air traffic controllers out of control?" asks Dr. Richard Swenson in his book Margin. "If we have ten times the material comforts, why are we not ten times more fulfilled? Why do so many marriages have so little vitality? Why do so many adolescents take their own lives? Aren't these fair questions to ask of progress?"
Unfortunately, all the accessories we create to make life more manageable come at a costly price. The expectations of what an individual can accomplish have risen to totally unrealistic levels. Swenson prescribes a simple remedy for society's preoccupation with progress — margin. Margin is "having breath left at the top of the staircase, money left at the end of the month, and sanity left at the end of adolescence." He assesses the situation as follows:
Condition:
Probably the most important area of concern is our emotional reservoirs, which are dangerously depleted. When we are emotionally resilient, we can confront our problems with a sense of hope and power. Conversely, emotional overload saps our strength, paralyses our resolve, and maximizes our vulnerability. Compound the situation with the crime in every city. Add indebtedness, bankruptcy, job insecurity, and demanding bosses. Add traffic noise, hurrying, and impossible work schedules. When you put it all together, there's no wonder anxiety and depression are at an all-time high.
However, God has a plan to help us lay aside the things that so easily distract us from the true intimacy of life. While it appears that technology is driving us crazy, it's not technology that matters; rather it is how we choose to approach it. If we put God, family, and friends first in our lives, we won't be ruled by man-made inventions that leave us drained of our most vital resources.
Prescription:
In the midst of intensive pressure we can look to God's Word for solid directives to help us pilot the blizzard of progress overload.
• Reconcile Relationships – When Jesus told Peter to forgive a brother who had offended him seventy times (Matt. 18:21-22), He knew how deeply severed relationships can affect people. Unresolved bitterness is like a terrible toothache that drains away our energy. "True reconciliation is one of the most powerful of all human interactions. Warring individuals who have done battle for years can erase all antagonism in a matter of minutes. This is not a matter of human psychology but rather a divine gift," says Swenson. "One of the great privileges of our adoption into God's family is the access we have to this mysterious healing power of the Spirit."
• Serve One Another – When Paul exhorted the Galatians to serve one another through love (Gal. 5:13), he understood the myriad benefits of serving. Service blesses the giver as much as the receiver. A recent University of Michigan study followed 2,700 people for over a decade to see how their social relationships affected their health and well-being. Those who performed regular volunteer work showed dramatically increased life expectancy. The morbidity of men involved in charitable service was two-and-one-half times lower than others.
• Love – The Bible tells us that of faith, hope, and love, the greatest of these is love. (1Cor. 13;13) "Love is the only medicine I know of which, when used according to the directions, heals completely yet takes one's life away. It is dangerous; it is uncontrollable; it is self expenditure; and it can never be taken on any terms but its own. Yet as a healer of the emotions, it has no equal, observes Swenson.
Prognosis:
Nobel prize winner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn once said of progress, "All that endless progress turns out to be is an insane, ill-considered, furious dash into a blind alley."
Thankfully, we can overcome progress overload by applying the truth of Scriptures to our technologically driven lives. When we integrate the social, emotional, and spiritual into our notion of progress, we will walk out of the alley into the light.
