© Rev. Lance Carrithers, all rights reserved.  Permission required to copy any portion of this message by any means. Email for permission: lance@firstchurchdc.com

Overload One: "Too Much Information”

Luke 5:12-16

 Today I begin a series of messages called the “Overload Syndrome”, based on the study and writings of Dr. Richard Swenson, a medical doctor and committed Christian who has identified an epidemic in our culture: people living without limits, who have become overworked, overstressed, overwrought, overwhelmed, overextended….overloaded.

            We will be taking a look at what overload is and how it occurs, and use biblical texts to help us identify overload even in the ancient stories of our spiritual heroes.  We’ll also look to the life of Christ, to find a healthy response to overload.

            Over the course of this series, I will also focus on specific kinds of overload.  Later this morning, I will specifically address the overload of media and information.  In the coming weeks we’ll discuss accessibility and emotional overload, work and activity overload, and financial overload.  I trust there will be something for everyone in the coming weeks.

            Let’s begin with what I mean when I use the word overload.

            There once was a day in America where people “lingered after dinner, helped their kids with homework, visited their neighbors, sat on the lawn swing, went for long walks, dug in the garden and usually had a full night’s sleep.” OS p. 9 

            Today, people are exhausted.   So many of us  have tried to put too much into the time and space we have available.  We live as though our limits are something to be pushed, believing that we can each one overcome whatever limitation we have simply by trying harder.  The ironic thing is, the harder we try, the more exhausted we become, the more overloaded we become.

            Dr. Swenson rightly says, “we need more time, we need more space.  We need more reserves.  We need more buffer.  We need, in short, more margin.” OS p. 9

            We all understand what a margin is, right?  It is the space that remains when we pull back from the edge.  Dr. Swenson says, “it is the space that once existed between our load and our limits.  It is the space between vitality and exhaustion.  It is our breathing room, our reserves, our leeway.” OS p. 13

            In our culture today, we push our limits, trying to maximize our production in the time and space that we have.   “We spend 10% more than we have…”  and Swenson says of course, that includes not just money, but time, and energy as well.   “We work hard, play hard, and crash hard.” OS p. 13

            But what if we pulled back enough to leave some room—some time and space in which to heal, some time and space for the unexpected, some time and space to scribble, reflect and doodle in our lives.  This is the margin.

            Dennis Kuder and I traveled to Washington D.C. and Boston this fall to visit Students our conference has in seminary.  We had to change planes in Atlanta, and because of a flight delay leaving Wichita, literally had less than 10 minutes to catch our connecting flight. 

            You remember the old Hertz rental car commercials, when O.J. Simpson, (long before his infamous white bronco chase and trial) went running and hurdling through the airport.   Now, I don’t know whether you know this about your D.S., but Dennis used to be quite a football player.  And that instinct and those skills came immediately useful as we ran the full length of one terminal, caught our ride to the next terminal, and then ran the length of the second terminal to catch our flight.

             Dennis was clearly within his limits to cover the distance in the time we had.  You might say, he even had some margin!  I, on the other hand, outweighing Dennis by some 200 pounds, more nose guard material than running back, was pushing it all the way to my limit…and beyond.

            Here’s the thing.  When making the flight arrangements, I lined up a series of flights that would get us from Wichita to Washington as quickly as possible.  But I didn’t leave any room for error.  I didn’t leave a margin.  So when the first flight was delayed, ever so slightly, the domino effect started toppling the rest of our travel plans.

            That’s what we do to our lives in a general way.  When we leave no room for error, no room for the unexpected to happen.  When we are already at the limit of our energy, time, space and emotions, when the unexpected happens, we are often thrown into crisis.  Have you been there?  What would have been only a inconvenience if one had the margins to deal with it, becomes a crisis.  Because we live without margin.  Sometimes, we live under the delusion that we don’t even have limits at all!

            Do you know the Tolstoy’s story of Pakhom, an ambitious man who heard of a wonderful offer in a far-off country.  He travels there and is told that he could have all the land he could walk around in one day for a thousand rubles.  If he failed to return to the starting point by sundown, however, he would gain nothing and would forfeit his money.

            Remember how the story went.  Pakhom walks, beginning at sunrise, and travels, walking and marking his land.  At noon, he looks at the hill where he started, and it seems terribly far in the distance, and he begins to wonder if he has been too greedy.  As the afternoon wears on, he fears he is still too far from the hill where he began, and he begins to run.  The heat is exhausting, and by now his bare feet are cut and sore.  He longs to rest, but cannot, not if he is to make it back.  He runs and runs, terrified he will not make it back and will have to forfeit his money.

            Although he is afraid he might die if he continues running at this pace, he cannot stop.  As he hears the people cheering him from the finish he summons his last bit of energy and strength to run up the hill, and lunges up it.   Reaching the top, he falls forward and touches the marker where he had begun his journey that morning just as the sun sets. 

            But this is his last, living act.  Pakhom had died in his last effort to reach the marker.  The workers picked up Pakhom’s spade, and dug a grave and buried him—six feet from head to heel—exactly the amount of land the man needed.

            Pakhom ignored his limits.  Pushed the boundaries.  “He died,” Dr. Swenson notes, “from overload.”  OS p. 23

            We cannot ignore our limits.   We were created with limits.   Limits are God’s work.  Indeed, to live as though we do not have limits, believing that all that is to be done must be done by our own efforts, is to dishonor God and God’s creation.  To deny our limits is to insult God’s creative wisdom. (OS p. 26)  And even God, incarnate in a human form, lived by the limits of that human body.

            In our text today, Jesus has just finished healing a man with leprosy.  Crowds of people begin to come to Jesus to be healed just as the man with leprosy was healed.  And what does Jesus do?   “He often withdrew to lonely places to pray.”

            In fact, throughout the gospels, Jesus withdraws from the crowds, from the people to a place by himself to pray.  One can safely assume that Jesus understood that to have the energy and reserves to meet the needs of those who stood before him, he would have to withdraw to make room, we might say, to make margin for himself.

            With Jesus as our model, let that be our goal.  To recognize that the pace we have set is often unsustainable.  That our limits are being pushed.  That we might perish in our pursuit to the finish.  And to recognize that the answer is margin. 

            In our time left, let’s examine one particular overload that affects many of us so deeply.   Then, I’ll offer a few prescriptions for rebuilding margin in our lives. 

            In our country today, we face an overload of information and media.   How many cable channels are there?   I’m ashamed to say that I subscribe to 60 some.  Those with digital cable have upwards of 200.  Soon, we are told, digital cable and satellite technology will deliver 500, 700 or more channels to our home.  And to what real, truly useful purpose?  That we might flick through them, watching 2 seconds here, 3 seconds there?

            Today, in the average home, the TV is on more than 7 hours a day!   ON top of that, we rent in this country, 2.5 to 4 billion (with a b) videos a year. 

            To fulfill our desire for a drink of water, we have turned on the firehose.  And this flood of media, often unfiltered, is resetting the moral acceptability threshold of our homes.   One media critic puts it in perspective this way, asking, “Do the things that once offended you now entertain you?  Are you able to enjoy the company of television programs, videos and movies that have values diametrically opposed to your own?”

            Let’s leave a margin of just a few seconds to let those questions settle in.

            We all understand media overload.   But I want you to consider information overload.  Don’t believe it?  Listen to these statistics:

            Of all the scientists who ever lived, 90% are alive today.     If a doctor were to attempt to keep up with the medical literature by reading two articles a day, in one year this individual would be more than 800 years behind!

            And listen how technology fuels the flame of information overload.   Today, the average American will have to learn to operate more than twenty-thousand pieces of technology in his or her lifetime?  20,000!    In fact, it is now possible to cram more than 11.6 gigabytes of data into one square inch of disk space.  Don’t know what that means?  It’s the equivalent of storing an eighteen story stack of double-spaced typed pages on your thumbnail!

            The internet has made literally billions of megabytes of materials available at our fingertips, --available at our children’s fingertips!

            In one survey 46% of respondents said their children prefer computers to their peers!

            Okay okay.   I’m overloading you with the data about how data is overloading us!  The real question is, what then can we do about it? 

            I’m going to offer up several of Dr. Swenson’s “prescriptions for media and information overload.”    I’ve made some handouts of these prescriptions available in the narthex, and they are also available along with this sermon on out website at www.firstchurchdc.com.

Rx 1  Guard against media being your only answer for loneliness

            When lonely, bored or stressed, we often activate our media surroundings—usually the TV.  In a previous era, we would have perhaps instead visited a friend.  If you are lonely, visit someone who would welcome the contact.  Or phone a friend.  Write a letter of encouragement.  Invite someone over for coffee.  

            This is not to say all media usage for loneliness is inappropriate, but if overused, it will result in more isolation, not less.

Rx 2  Establish Media Limits

            TV should be an interlude, not a way of life.  Up to but no more than 7 hours a week?

            TV not on until homework or other chores are done.

            Approved list of shows

            Resist expanding your selection of channels.  Consider limiting the number of TV’s as well.  Remove TV’s from bedrooms, encouraging family to watch shows together, promoting interaction.

            Home is becoming where we live alone together.

Rx 3  Pitch the Pile

            Is there a stack of unread newspapers, magazines, journals or other material?  Get rid of it.  If you haven’t read it by now, you probably never will.  If the stack is more than six inches high, save the top inch and throw the rest away. 

            Cancel publications you don’t have time to read.   

Rx 4  Consider a Media Fast

            Have a “no TV week,” or perhaps a month.

            On shorter trips, instead of turning on the radio in the car, consider praying.

            Receive silence and welcome it

            You will not in all probability be able to do all of these, nor should you try.   What I ask is this:  If information and media overload have stolen the margin from your life, then carefully weigh and consider at least one change that will help.  One change that will re-establish some of the margin for you.

            Next week, we’ll have more time to discuss our 24-7 culture, and how emotionally, being accessible to everyone who wants to reach us leaves us overloaded.  We’ll have many more prescriptions then, and more help for those who are battling the Overload Syndrome.