Time-saving technologies have never saved time. We get that. We aren’t working two days a week, set free by all the great technologies we’ve adopted. But that’s what they promised. Tech was supposed to make life easier, more breathable. It was to go to work for us. No, the more tech we get, the harder it seems we have to work. The joy of work email available on your phone, on your nightstand.

I have battled this all my adult life. I love depth, thought, and prayer. But I also love emojis. Every ping and chirp coming from my device is ripe with possibilities. I probably won the lottery and they are letting me know.

Because I know I am called to use my brain and to have true mental space for God and the people He has put in my life, I try to keep that technology where it belongs. It is my servant, my slave. I will not serve it. I will not become enslaved to a mass of email, not when there is real work to do. I will not give my attention to my 1,287th friend, lest I have no ability to love my family, friends, neighbors, and colaborers well. I will not sing with delight over “like” number 100 when there is a war to wage. I am a man of the trenches, I cannot take my eyes off the scope.

Again, time-saving technologies never save time. We must work hard to make them work for us. If we don’t, we will work for them, slaves to the machine. But I am a slave of God, I belong to Him. I have put my ear up to His doorpost and He has driven His awl through. He bought me with His blood, so I strive to live in response to Him, not my Twitter.