No…this is not a blog about millennials who do dumb stuff.  That would be all of us, and I don’t have time!  Instead, I want to discuss something that has an incredible effect everyone living in the age of the iPhone (or whatever lesser smartphone you may use).  It is chock-full of apps (the abbreviation for applications…though it could just as easily be the abbreviation for appetizers) which fuel the neural centers of your brain with dopamine, a neurotransmitter that controls the brain’s reward and pleasure centers.

Now, I will be the last person to claim to be any sort of scientist, and dopamine – or anything having to do with your brain – is typically more complex than we understand.  But one thing we should be concerned with is that dopamine is closely tied to addiction to drugs, as well.  Some of the same chemical responses and addictive behaviors are represented whether it is an addiction to illegal narcotics or apps on a smartphone.

For teenagers and young adults today, in particular, this is an important observation.  Their smartphones grant them access to everything from instant web browsing to texting to social media to music to podcasts to streaming shows and movies to purchasing items to many darker forms of entertainment as well.  And each of these things are able to produce addictive behaviors in anyone, but especially formative adolescent minds.

Picture a drug addict that has 24/7 unlimited, unrestricted access to their drug of choice right in their pocket.  It explains why there’s constant checking of the phone even when you don’t realize it.  There’s certain apps that you open without even thinking about it when you pull the phone out of your pocket.  And there’s plenty of dopamine to go around:   The notifications on social media that someone has ‘liked’ or responded to one of your posts/pics/snapchats/etc. The chance to binge-watch entire seasons on Netflix in the palm of your hand. Even the TERM “binge” is something that I had only previously heard in reference to drug users.  Nowadays, that is how we refer to our consumption of television shows.  Something is askew.

Our student ministry is going through a 40 day fast right now called The Feast, where I have challenged each of them to give something up from Ash Wednesday through Easter Sunday in order to get more out of their relationship with Jesus.  Many of them have chosen to give up certain social media apps or Netflix or video games or all kinds of other things for a period of time in order to do so.  And what I’ve been realizing is that many are seeing just how addicted they are to their devices.  Some have already failed in their fast.  Some were unwilling to give up certain things because they are so attached to Snapchat or Instagram or Facebook or Netflix – that they literally don’t know what life would be like without them.

And I say all this not as a condemnation on my teenagers – again this is a problem for ALL of us in our world today. Rather, I mention this because God has given us dopamine neurotransmitters to be used in the right way.  Scripture says in Psalm 34:8, “Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!” Psalm 37:4a cries out, “Delight yourself in the Lord!” Jesus is better than anything else this world has to offer.  God has hardwired us for pleasure.  Our problem is we let our hearts run after all the wrong things.  Toward false, fragile, and fleeting pleasures.

One of my all-time favorite quotes comes from author and pastor John Piper who famously said, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.” We will find our greatest satisfaction when it is God in all his glory that we are adoring.  And God will be most glorified in our lives when we are enjoying Him more than anything else.  We were created to be addicted to His glory, His presence, His activity in our lives.  Our problem is we aren’t.  We are addicted to the glory of the number of followers or likes or views we get.  We are addicted to the constant presence of our friends through text and social media.  We are addicted to the activity of games and television shows our smart phones put in our pockets.  Wi-Fi is our replacement Savior, and a wall outlet with a charging cord is our replacement Holy Spirit that fuels it all!

I’m not saying that smartphones & apps are inherently sinful in and of themselves.  I am saying that any good thing that becomes an ultimate thing in our lives has become an idol to us.  The problem is that these false gods need to be recharged daily.  And they will never fully satisfy us.  It’s like drinking salt water, it ends up just making us thirstier…and it will eventually kill us.

We have to re-train our hearts and minds to seek after the Lord above it all.  We have to wean ourselves from the dopamine-fueled addiction to these human-made devices.  We have to use them as tools rather than being used by them.  The question is: Do you control your phone or does it control you?  Because our smart phones don’t get to be Lord…only Jesus does.  Otherwise, we are all just being duped and doped.