Multi-Tasking God's Way

MULTI-TASKING GOD’S WAY

Intro

I was at a conference a couple of weekends ago and I heard some pretty interesting statistics. The speaker was discussing the technology age, the age of media, and how it is affecting our lives. He began to talk about multi-tasking (doing more than one thing, or several things at once), and it struck a chord with me. Listen to some of these statistics:

One report states that kids are media multi-tasking 29% of the time

31% of kids say they multi-task while doing homework

8-18 year olds are exposed to 7 hours 38 minutes of media per day (with multi-tasking, turns into a total of 10 hours 45 minutes per day)

15-18 year olds spend 1 hour 51 minutes per day texting

On average there are more televisions per household than there are children per household

A child will spend 18,000 hours in front of a television by the time they graduate high school (5,000 more than they spend in school)

1 out of 5 toddlers under the age of 3 have a television in their bedroom

Research shows that the average American ingests 34 gigabytes of information in a day from various forms of media (tv, music, games, internet, etc.) This translates to 105,000 words per day from media.

Many people are calling this the “age of distraction.” However, studies in neuroscience have shown that the brain is unable to effectively focus on more than one thing at a time. Therefore, multi-tasking as we define it, is a myth. The human brain cannot participate in two different things at the same time and do them as well as if they were done one at a time. I found this interesting, and I began to think about the concept of multi-tasking. It began to dawn on me that, in a way, God asks us to multi-task. He asks us to do a few different things all at once, and to do them well. Here’s what I mean:

TASK 1

I. Maintain a Heavenly Mind-Set

Phillipians 3:20-21

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.

Paul likely wrote this letter to the Philippian church near the end of the his imprisonment in Rome. He had several reasons for writing the letter; namely to address the tendency of the Philippian Church toward disunity and disagreement among one another. Paul was distressed at this behavior, and had some strong words against them. Some of the church were being influenced by the Judiazers; those that wanted to add or modify the requirements of salvation. Others were being led astray by groups that tended toward sensuality and materialistic greed. Paul’s goal was to unify this church, to bring everyone back together, and his strategy was to have them focus on what they had in common. What they had in common was Jesus Christ. Paul sought to restore a heavenly mind-set within the Philippian Church.

When Paul writes that “our citizenship is in heaven”, the Greek word he uses for heaven is ‘ouranos’ (oo-ran--os) literally meaning “the abode of God”, and “happiness, power, and eternity.”

We are citizens of the house of God. Our home, our true home, is where God reigns. Our home is utter happiness. Our home is, literally, power. Our home is eternal. Paul encourages the readers to stay focused on this idea--to re-gain a little bit of perspective. Don’t get sidetracked by things and people that want to lead you this way or that way. Think big picture. Don’t forget the end goal.

Our destiny changes with our thoughts; we shall become what we wish to become, do what we wish to do, when our habitual thoughts correspond with our desires.

Orison Swett Marden

Paul then goes on to discuss the resurrection aspect of the new life. He states that “the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of his glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.”

The ‘body of our humble state’ is referring to our position on earth. The phrase ‘humble state’ is translated from a Greek word meaning depression, humiliation, low rank. This is not an insult to us as human beings. This is a contrast. A contrast between what we have now--what we are now--and what we will be in heaven. Paul says here we are in these earthly bodies completely wrapped up in the chaos of the day, disagreeing with our brothers and sisters in Christ over earthly matters.