I have been very faithful writing my blog this summer as I have been on sabbatical.  But this is the first post in over a week.  I am sure that some of you have been wondering what has happened.  Have I been too busy golfing?  I have played a fair bit over the past few weeks although my game hasn’t improved – if I ever had game at all.  Have I been away on vacation?  While I did enjoy a good day on a great boat owned by a friend of mine and didn’t even get sea sick, that is not the reason.  Have I run out of things to say and to right?  You know me better than that. 

The reason for no blog entries for the last week is that my laptop decided to take a sabbatical.   Although it has been working poorly for a few weeks, last weekend it decided enough was enough and it simply shut down.  I couldn’t recieve and respond to emails sent unless I used my Blackberry.  Sue reminds me I am not supposed to be checking emails but I am in re-entry mode and I have convinced myself it is okay.  I thought about trying to do my blog on my Blackberry but I have fat thumbs and it would have had more spelling mistakes that usual and it would have made less sense than it normally does. 

It has been an interesting summer when it comes to technology.  I lost my Blackberry in the train station in Paris and was without it for more than a week.  Now my laptop took a week long sabbatical as well.  My iPod isn’t working right – the battery won’t seem to hold a charge.  I listen to many podcasts in any given week which I haven’t been able to do for weeks.  These are podcasts that feed my soul and fuel me for ministry so I have really missed it.  Even the calculater that I use in my home office has stopped working.  I paid about five bucks for it ten years ago so I feel I’ve got my money out of it.  As I pondered these technology sabbaticals that my Blackberry and laptop and iPod have been on I realized how dependent we have become on technology and how much we miss it when it is gone.  Do you ever wonder how we did life without all this technology?  Do you ever wonder how we handled life when we couldn’t send and recieve emails or text messages?  Do you ever wonder how we stayed in touch before Facebook and Twitter? 

Then I got thinking (which is a dangerous thing), what if we decided each week to take a sabbath.  A sabbath being a single day every seven, where we rest, reflect, refocus and refuel.   But not simply a sabbath from work or a sabbath from the crazy pace of life that some of us experience but also a sabbath from technology.  A sabbath where we shut down and shut off.    A sabbath where we turn off and tune out.   Technology once promised to make our lives simpler which is a promise that never was kept.  Maybe the simplicity comes not from technology but from taking a sabbath from it.  I’m not sure that anything would be tougher to do than this.  But maybe it is worth a try.