© 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 Two: “24/7”

Matthew 13:24-30

     August 28, 1963.  Perhaps the most well-known and most quoted public speech of the 20^th century.  It occurred on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, on the mall of our nation’s capitol.  Television cameras carried the words and the images to the world.  These are the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

            “I have a dream,” he said.  And he dreamed of a better world for all of this nation’s citizens, regardless of color.   “I have a dream today,” he said.   He dreamed of racial harmony.  He dreamed of economic opportunity for all.  He dreamed of a world where we not only tolerate one another, but we learn to love and serve one another.

            But in 1963, Dr. King did not dream of a world where many might have the desire to live in harmony and serve one another, but have become simply too overloaded to make that dream a reality.

            Overload.  Last week I outlined just a bit about what overload is.   I cannot take the time to review all we discussed, but I found a picture that indeed, is worth a thousand words.  

 This is overload.  When the weight we are burdened to carry is so great that we become airborne, lose our grip on the pavement, and flail helplessly about.

 Have you been overloaded? 

 As I mentioned last week when we talked about media and information overload, we are going to examine different kinds of overload, but more importantly, prescriptions for restoring margin in our lives.   For margin is the antidote for overload, it is the medicine we need, it is the cure we crave.

            Margin, is the space we once had, between our load and our limits.  Unlike our poor donkey  whose load is beyond his limits.  Margin is the reserve we have to meet the unexpected.  Margin is the lee-way in our life.   We could all use more margin.

            Let me ask some questions, and if you would, by a show of hands, provide me with some data concerning a type of overload I suspect is weighing us down.

How many of you here have a telephone?  Cordless telephone?

Call waiting or call forwarding on that telephone?

How many of you here have an answering machine at home?

How many of you have more than one telephone number, say, at home and at work, or even two numbers at home.

How many of you use a cell phone?

Anyone here have a beeper or pager?

How many of you have Email?

Does anyone here have a fax machine, at home or at work?

Anyone here accessible through a radio of some sort?

            You might have guessed by now, I’m talking about accessibility overload. 

            Our twenty-four/seven culture tells us it is important to be available, accessible at all times and in all places.  In fact, the more accessible you are, the more important you are.   It’s a seduction. 

            For example, here’s something I notice about pastors.  A new pastor of a pretty small church, say less than 50 in worship, often will carry a cell-phone so that he or she can be contacted at any time, anywhere.  When their phone rings while they are in a meeting—they almost beam with pride as they tell everyone, “I’m sorry, I need to take this call.”

            Now then, at that same meeting there will be pastors of larger churches, perhaps with 100 to 200 in attendance on Sundays.  They too will have cell phones.  When their phone rings, they grimace, look at the screen to see who it is that is calling them, and then slink out of the room to answer the call if they deem that it is important.

            Now then, at that same meeting, let’s say there are pastors of churches like this one, pastors like myself.   When they settle in for the meeting, I’ve noticed a number of them doing what I do.  They sit down, and when the meeting begins, turn their phones off.  Limiting their accessibility.

            This may shock you, but I think it’s indicative of what Dr. Richard Swenson notes as he talks about Accessibility overload—that we all reach a “breaking point” of some sort when it comes to accessibility.  Those with small churches aren’t interrupted very often, and so they welcome it.  In short, they are often still working within their margin.  Those with medium sized churches grimace because they have reached the limit and are starting to feel resentful of the interruption.  Pastors of large churches have already reached the limit, and have learned, out of necessity to pull back, to carve out a margin once again so that they can be present and effective when they need to be.

            I was filling out an application recently, and it asked for the following information.   Name.  Sure.  Address right.  Phone. Yep.  Then it asked for my work address.  Okay.  And my work phone, well…I guess.  Then it asked for my Email.  Alright.  And then my work address.  I began to wonder how much information I was willing to provide.  Then, it asked for my fax number. And my work Email.   And then my cell phone number.  And then a line for “other,” which it explained, was for other phone numbers or pager numbers where I might be reached.

            Are you kidding?  Here, on one application, to be mailed to someone I didn’t even know, I was being asked to supply nothing short of 10 different ways they could try to reach me.  Ugh!    Overload syndrome.

            What will be the result of all of this connectivity, the technology that allows us to be available 24/7?   Is it good or bad?  Dr. Swenson’s insight is right on target.  He says, “like most modern things, it is both.  At exactly the same time.  The wheat and tares are growing side by side.”

            What is good about this connectivity may seem obvious.  We finally got our daughters cell phones, because in high school, they have a variety of activities and sometimes we need to be able to communicate with them our expectations such as times to be home etc.   Connectivity means you can communicate—reach those you need to reach.

            But the very thing that makes accessibility good, makes it bad.  A new cell phone is put into service on average every three seconds.    A full size ad in a recent Wall Street Journal read, “The good news is, you’re always connected to the office, no matter where you are.  The bad news is, you’re always connected to the office, no matter where you are.”  Hear it? 

            Accessibility overload has created an “absence of hiding places.  Privacy is going, going, gone.  Natural solitude has disappeared.”  This is what columnist William Saffire has called “unrestrained reachability.”

            So far, I’ve only addressed the devices that we choose to expand our accessibility.  What about the invasion of our privacy by that we do not choose?  The first that comes to mind, telemarketing calls.    I probably don’t even need to say anything more about that.  And the second, spyware and spam on our computers. 

            Spyware sneaks into your computer when you are on the Internet, and begins to follow you as you surf the web.  It sends information back to an unknown entity about the things you are interested in, what you purchased, personal information about you, your address, and in its most dangerous forms, financial payment information like credit card numbers.

            Spam comes flooding into our Email accounts creating an overload that can anger and frighten us.   Dee, after being off for Ron’s surgery and the Christmas break came back to work to find hundreds of Emails waiting in her inbox.  Almost all of them were unwanted solicitations.

            Finally, there is another aspect to accessibility overload.  People who want something from us, but who offer us very little in return. 

Dr. Swenson tells us there are three types of people in our lives. 
People who fill you.  People who just sit there.  And people who drain you.

Swenson states that although it is not a scientific number, he believes the drainers outnumber the fillers 2 to 1.

            Now then, some of those drainers really need and deserve our attention, our children for instance.  But when we are already overloaded, have trampled our boundaries and filled our lives with too many draining relationships, we have a tendency to let it build until we “run away,” either emotionally or sometimes, physically.

            Well, it doesn’t take long to recognize how accessibility overload steals the margins from our lives.  It’s time once again to look at some of Dr. Swenson’s prescriptions for unloading the overload.

 Rx 1

 Set Boundaries

            It is not only acceptable, but desirable to erect and defend a perimeter around the private spaces of our lives. 

            Try no phone calls during dinner, or no phone calls after a certain time.

Rx 2 

Control Interruption

            I write sermons and other articles at my home office—why?  Because there, I can control interruption when I am writing.  Recently my computer was fried.  I’ve been trying to write and work in the study here in the church.  But that makes is difficult to control interruption. 

            Do Not Call list—use it.  How many of you have signed up?

Rx 3

Disconnect

            Establish a weekly “disconnect time” for your family—tell friends and relatives you cannot be reached during this time.  Then, take the plunge and unplug!

 Rx 4

Use technology to control Spam and Spyware

       Technology is “wheat and tares.”  The wheat is good and nourishing.  Use technology to restore margins rather than take it away.  One way is to install spam filters and spyware filters on your computer.

Rx 5

Seek Solitude

            As accessibility overload arrives through the front door, natural solitude departs out the back.  Intentional  solitude is still attainable, however. 

            Use solitude to build a deeper relationship with God and self. 

            Jesus practiced intentional solitude.  Remember?  Our passage from last week?  Jesus “often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”

Rx 6

Envision a better future. 

            As we prepare to celebrate Dr. King’s birthday, we must remember that this is what he did that was so powerful.  He dreamed a dream. 

            Join me in dreaming better lives for ourselves—God means for us to live lives filled with wholeness and joy.  That is possible as we rediscover margin in our lives.  But don’t just dream…make a commitment today to do at least one thing that will help restore margin in your life.

 

Next week…we will discuss Work and Activity overload!  Bring someone with you that you know has too much to do and too little time in which to do it.

As we sing our final hymn, that great song of the civil rights movement, “We Shall Overcome,”  let us use this call to give us hope that we can be unbound from the overload in our lives when we invoke God’s help and healing.