And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. -1 John 5:20-21
I dropped my phone on my eye the other day. That's right. Phone straight to my face. Unfortunately, this isn't the first time this has happened. But this time, the phone hit me so hard that I became concerned that I hurt myself. After a chat with a friend, who is a nurse, and feeling reassured that my eye was most likely not going to fall out of the socket, I calmed down and had a good reality check. There's no reason I should be getting hurt by my phone. It's not even a good story or some cool way of getting hurt. I realized that perhaps my phone has become a modern day idol, something that's good but taken to an extreme measure. Something I've become addicted to or have begun to worship (giving all of my time, attention, and adoration to.) It can be easy to take good things to ungodly levels. But there's a simple way to reverse this, for me, I need to set a few healthy boundaries to detach (and keep myself safe) from my phone. Some boundaries I thought of are:
No more scrolling or phone time when I'm lying down or in bed. There are studies that show the phone lights mess with your cardiac rhythm and sleep schedule. It's also bad for your eyes. So avoiding the scroll at night will do me good. Plus it will save my face from phone blows.
No more scrolling. Scrolling actually messes with your attention span and will keep you reaching for your phone over and over. Instead of scrolling, I can play a podcast or read something.
No more reaching for my phone every 2 minutes. I'm hoping the first two will help me with this one.
Leave the phone alone. When I go for a walk, spend time with a friend, or I'm in church, I can leave my phone tucked away and give my attention to what's in front of me.
Here's the thing, technology has done a lot of good for us but it also does harm. It's easy to get consumed by technology but this consumption isn't good for us. This is the sneaky way enjoyable and even godly things become idols, we take good things to extreme measures and put those things in our God-place. The place of our heart that should only be occupied by God. We do this with desires, things, food, and people. The way to stop this? Setting limits and boundaries and ultimately not loving these things to a point that brings us harm.
Are there things in your life that are good but taken to a level that cause you harm? Perhaps a eating habit? Or relationship? Set limits to keep yourself in a healthy place and prevent that good thing from becoming an ungodly thing.