The Technological Treadmill.

So the new iPhone is coming out. Articles on business pages talk about the number of people lining up to order/buy this latest version of the hot selling phone with the all amazing applications.

The cycle of innovation keeps speeding up, and what was cutting edge technology six months ago is now outdated. Left high and dry. Shiny new phones, computers, electronic reading devices, MP3 units, are taken home...we just figure them out...they just start to "work" for us. Then, something new is rolled out. The shiny new thing is now old. We turn them in. Spend more money. Lose more hours trying to figure out a new operating system. And so it goes.

An article in a Christian news magazine the other day (or was it the New York Times?) raised the whole question about the environmental impact of all these devices being built and then discarded. Are they being recycled? What about all the metal and plastic that is put into each unit?

At what point do we say, "Enough?" That may be an odd statement for me to make the week after I bought my first iPod. But at what point do we say this: "Enough. The phone I have makes phone calls, allows me to text and take pictures, and I think that is just fine. I don't want to spend more money for something that does more stuff I can't even figure out."

It is an environmental concern: the world does not have endless resources.

It is a stewardship concern: have you ever thought about all the stress in your life, and the time wasted, as you try to figure out that new computer, that new phone, that new MP3, that new GPS unit?

It is a spiritual concern: is it just possible that we think the next new shiny thing will make the deep ache inside go away...when only a relationship with the living God can do that?

Maybe the Hebrews weren't bowing and scraping to a golden calf out there in the wilderness of Sinai. Maybe they were actually standing in line waiting for the next cool phone.