YOUTH MATTERS: Jesus first, technology only if essential

By Darcy Rogers, Director of the Office of Youth Evangelisation

Are you craving to re-establish healthy habits and a more routine prayer life? Are your days seemingly out of control, unproductive or not fulfilling?

Fr Larry Richards once commented that the things we spend the most time on we tend to make our God. For some people their God is money, power, fame, but for many today I would argue it is technology. And if technology is the issue, we need to ask whether this is because we have made the success of our day dependent on our own strength and desires, rather than God’s?

I have been walking with Jesus since I was 12 years old. There are seasons of my life when I am more responsive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and feel empowered to go where He leads me.

However, there are times when my faith becomes complacent. I would say that technology is one of the thorns in my side when it comes to allowing God into all areas of my life.  There are times, when instead of opening the Word of God or entering into prayer and giving Jesus my first fruits, I reach for my phone and end up ‘doom scrolling’.

It’s also hard to be loving and generous when our technology is saturated with negativity and divisiveness. Many of us feel tired, too preoccupied with technology to tend to our relationship with God. Perhaps we are placing our desires above God because we lack humility and trust in Him?

In a recent homily, Archbishop Tony reflected on the faith and humility of the tax collector who could only say, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:9-14).

“Sometimes our thoughts wander, our hearts feel dry, and our faith seems weak. But the effort itself—the trying—is prayer. Because when we try, we open a door, and grace begins its quiet work,” Archbishop Tony said.

He further said, “The tax collector tried—he reached out in his poverty and need—and Jesus tells us he ‘went home at rights with God’. What a beautiful phrase that is: he went home at rights with God.

“Isn’t that what we all desire? To go home each evening — and one day at the end of our life — to be at home in His presence at rights with God.”

These are powerful words from our Archbishop; may we be encouraged that our surrender can be an act of humility that is met with the mercy of Jesus. Humility says ‘I can’t do this life alone’. Even as an adult I remind myself daily that I need Jesus. This is simple but essential.

I pray this month that you and I can recognise our need for Jesus and put him first in our lives above everything else, including our phones and other technology competing for our attention. May we be at rights with God and always ready to do his will on earth.