One of the prevailing themes with mobile technology, whether we are talking of devices, software, or usage, has to do with control. Unfortunately, we don’t always get an understanding early in our faith with God that we don’t have a lot of control over things in our lives; that’s something that comes later. As we grow and mature in the faith we do understand more than the control over life that we do have is something very small in terms of the scope of things, though has very large reprocussions. I am speaking about controlling how we react to life around us.

A lot of the exhortation found in the New Testament about us and control has a lot to do with reacting to life after we now have our framework in the life of Christ. From Jesus telling the young ruler to sell all he has and follow Him, to Paul exhorting the church of Corinth to be mature in their use of spiritual gifts, to the many exortations to simply rein in the sensual desires in order to be better presented holy; control is a theme we see that weaves in and out of other areas. However, many of us struggle with control because of lack of maturity, or willful ignorance.

I find that a lot of the struggle that people have these days with mobile technology have to do with control and access. Control from the perspective of how/when to use it, what can I do with it legally/illegally, and how should what I want to do be governed by what I believe.

So how do we address control? No, not how should the devices and services help us address it, but how do we take personal responsibility towards these issues of control?

Here are some things to think about:

• How does your use of mobile devices or your preferred mobile software demonstrate healthy control with work, ministry, and personal relationships?
• When do you find that using a mobile device is harder not to do than other moments? Is it profitable?
• Do you get positive value in using your mobile device or service in its prescribed functions, or do you prefer tweaking it (legally or illegally) to get that value?
• Based on what you know about the life and times of Jesus and the disciples, how would they respond to the same technology in repect to increasing the reputation/light of Christ to those inside and outside of the faith?

Take the time to chew on this. Accountability and responsibility has its roots in control. Good control is a model of God’s hands working effectively, bad control casts a tainted light to the name by which we are called.