How to Follow Jesus in Your Digital LifeSample

Owning Your Part

When you consider everything we discussed in Days One and Two, one thing becomes clear: we each bear the weight of responsibility as well—not only for how we use our digital tools but for the ways we’ve personally contributed to a society that is fixated on them as a way to slow all of our world’s problems.

Where worldly wisdom says to pass the blame, biblical wisdom says to take personal responsibility for our actions online. After all, we—meaning humans—chose to create these tools. And we are the ones using our devices at all hours of the day (and night, for many), which means we’re active participants in our relationship with technology.

Whether it is efficiency, beauty, comfort, or escape, the tools that promise us such things wouldn’t work if we weren’t so drawn to them. Yes, technology has many flaws, and powerful companies often use the benefits it offers in exploitative ways. Still, we cannot shift the blame for the rise of fake news, curated realities, polarization, and other problems solely on these technologies without acknowledging that these tools actually function like jet fuel poured on a society already aflame with sin and pride and countless idols.

We must own that. We must own our part.

So, what does this look like? Though our digital world is highly automated and often curated by machines, how do we walk in biblical wisdom, taking ownership of our actions and the things we consume online? How can we walk in wisdom amidst such a curated age?

We’ll have some ideas in tomorrow’s devotion.

Q: What have you been consuming online recently that is not in line with the values of Jesus? Anything you find amusing online that God finds heartbreaking?

Q: Review each fruit of the Spirit as listed in Gal 5:22-23, and then list the opposite of each trait. Is there certain material in your digital world that produces these opposite traits in you? How does this prove that technology shapes you in ways opposite of God’s Spirit?