When did you get your first mobile?
I lived without a mobile for the first 19 years of my life and bought my first smartphone 5 years ago.
I now find it almost irresistible to avoid looking at my smartphone - it has the internet, a camera, apps galore, oh and I can chat to people on it too.
Why has my smartphone become almost irresistible?
Maybe it's the connections.
Connections to friends, work, entertainment, shopping and learning is fairly comprehensive. The more connections, the more irresistible.
A failing of discipleship is our inability to connect God with study, friendships, health, shopping habits or a myriad of other areas.
What [spiritual] technology does the church need to connect following Jesus to our everyday life on mission?
We are becoming increasingly addicted to our technology. We can reject it, go with it or monitor it. Maybe we do all three? Or what about drawing inspiration from it?
Technology revolutionises thinking, behaviour and opportunity. So, could we connect with God in a way that our thoughts and habits are deeply transformed?
Could we become as distracted with “checking” for God's Presence as we are with our phones or social media?
God's Presence is our connection to all of life. No moment is out of bounds; no study or area of our life is secular in God's Kingdom.
The gateway technology to seeing more of God's Kingdom anytime anywhere is an awareness of His Presence. As we practice "checking" God’s Presence, our habits are formed, our thinking and behaviour transformed into the mind of Christ.
Universities shape a generation’s minds toward critical thinking and hearts toward self-fulfilment.
This isn’t a threat to discipleship if we’re “checking” God’s Presence. Our thinking can be critiqued and our hearts shaped toward Kingdom fulfilment in the presence of God.
If we're going to be led in God's Presence then we need to know who is leading us. We need to know the "software" that is guiding our interpretation of His Presence otherwise we could be way off!
The software is the Story; the word of God centred in Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, the Spirit and our future hope.
I believe successful student discipleship will increasingly depend on a generation deferring its desires for man-made technology to embrace the technology of his Presence, to keep us checking compulsively and draw us face to face with God.
The technology of "checking" the Presence of God is designed to be a gateway to bring God's future world now.
Anything and everything can captivate our attention if we don't find His Presence irresistible. It’s time to see successful mission in developing the habit of “checking” God’s Presence.
****** Look out for the follow up post "5 Ways to check for God's Presence" *****
