Logging On

If you were an early participant in the Internet revolution, you remember the cumbersome process of "logging on." Your computer dialed a number, your modem squeaked and squawked for a few seconds, and (hopefully) you got connected. But then, more likely than not in the early days, your connection would be "dropped" and you'd have to go through the whole process of logging on again.

In those days, you were either "on" or "off" the Internet. You dialed in, checked your email or went to a website, and logged off. Today, however, the days of logging on to the Internet are rapidly disappearing.

At the end of 2004, 37.9 million American users were accessing the Internet via broadband connections, and broadband access is now available to 99 percent of American homes. By connecting through your television cable or digitally through your telephone line (DSL), you can maintain an "always on" connection. As long as your computer is turned on (and many people never turn them off these days), you are connected.

If the Internet itself was the first phase of the Information Age, then broadband connections are the second. You no longer have to decide to connect to the international flow of information - you are always there. The web pages of many news sources refresh themselves every couple of minutes so there is a constant stream of news and information appearing on your on your computer screen. You don't have to connect to communicate - with a broadband, always-on connection, you are "in the Internet moment" all the time.

I believe there's a helpful analogy to be made between the dial-up mode of Internet access and the kind of spirituality that uses the daily quiet time (or church on Sunday, or the weekly Bible study) as the way to "connect" to God. Remember in the early days of the Internet, you logged on for a specific amount of time, did your business, and logged off. If there was something happening on the Internet while you were logged off ... well, you just missed it. I fear too many of us live our spiritual lives in the "dial-up" mode instead of the "broadband" mode and thereby miss a lot that God is doing in the world and wants to do in our lives.

A lot of Christians "log on" to God once a day when they have their quiet times, or when they go to church on Sunday. They pray, they read their Bible - they connect with God. And that's good. The problem with that approach to the spiritual life is that there is no sense of being "always on" no sense of living in the moment with God once you've finished your quiet time. You open your Bible, bow in prayer, conduct your business with God, and log off for the day.

What we need is a revolution in spirituality like the Internet broadband revolution. We need Christians who are not logging on with God once a day or once a week. We need Christians who have an always-on connection with Him, Christians who are in constant communication with God by walking in the Spirit, Christians who live in the moment with God.

The danger with the dial-up mode of spirituality is that you're liable to miss something God wants you to see or hear or experience or learn from Him. It's as if someone has sent you an important email message, but you don't get it until the next day because you only log on to the Internet once a day.

Turning Points

November 2005

Page-6

Walking in the Spirit; Prayer; Intimacy with God