During October, I have been highlighting dastardly characters in my sermon series entitled “Villains in the Pew.”  Thus far, we have evaluated The Wicked Witch of the West and Darth Vader.  This week, we will be taking a look at a pop-culture icon, which some people forget started out as a villain.  We will be examining The Terminator and how technology seems to be taking over our lives.

Therefore, prior to the sermon, I have a few questions I would like to ask.  These questions will provide an idea of how much technology plays a part in our lives.   Once we stop to consider the sheer amount of time we spend with technology, we might be challenged to get up from our desks and take a walk outside on this beautiful Autumn day.

Here are the questions (Note: the questions ask about weekly minutes):

• How many minutes do you spend working on a computer or tablet each week?  This includes word processing, excel files, data entry, email, or any other program you utilize for work?
• How many minutes do you spend on a computer or tablet each week for leisure?  This includes Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, surfing the web, watching Netflix, or anything else just for fun.
• How many minutes do you spend talking on the phone for work and private conversations each week?
• How many minutes do you spend sending and receiving texts each week?
• How many minutes do you spend listening to or watching something on your smartphone or tablet each week?
• How many minutes do you spend playing games (Angry Birds and Words for Friends count) on a smartphone or tablet each week? 
• How many minutes do you spend playing video games on a gaming console per week?
• How many minutes do you spend watching a movie or television shows each week?

Now, take that amount of time and subtract it from 10,080 (minutes per week) and this leaves the amount of time you have for other activities.  Now, subtract 2,940 (seven hours of sleep per night) and this gives waking minutes for other activities.  How many do you have?  Surprised?  How so?

Now if this is way too much math or time to spend helping the pastor, answer this simple question for me.  Over the next hour, tell me how many times your eyeballs look at your phone?  Two per hour?  Six per hour?  Twelve per hour?  Are you looking at your phone right now?

If so, set it down and go take a walk.  The sunshine will do you good.

See you Sunday as we examine The Terminator!