Lots of studies show that multitasking isn't very good for us.  We don't, actually, think better when we do too many things at once.  We don't, in fact, learn more when we multitask; in fact whatever we think we have learned is harder to remember and more difficult to retrieve.  We don't, actually, get more done when we multitask.  When we pay too much attention to cell phones and Facebook, our IQ points actually drop!

 

 

And yet, multitasking is part of our lives these days.  I think it may well be our biggest twenty-first century temptation.  We are busy and stressed - and the apparent way to deal with this is through doing as much as possible at the same time.

 

As we might guess, the scriptures are not going to advocates of multitasking, having been written in another day and age.  Yet today's gospel reading (Luke 5:33-39) shows advocating what might have passed for multitasking back then.  The scribes and Pharisees mock Jesus' disciples, saying, "John the Baptist's disciples fast and pray often, but yours eat and drink."  The implication, of course, is that Jesus' disciples ought also be fasting and praying.  

 

But Jesus warns that this would be a version of multitasking: for how is it that his disciples could fast and pray while at the same time joyfully celebrate that he, the bridegroom, is among them?  Indeed, they cannot.  In just the same way, they cannot patch old wineskins with new wineskins, nor can they tear a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one, unless they wanted to ruin the new one.

 

To attempt to do too much is to miss the whole point of Jesus' presence.  Jesus is there!  If we start fasting while he's there, we ignore the one for whom we do our fasting and praying.  

 

So, rather than attempt to be super-holy by trying to get as much face time with Jesus as they can, AND also fast, AND also pray, Jesus simply asks his disciples to be present.  Be present with Jesus.

 

In the first reading (1 Corinthians 4:1-5), Paul likewise suggests focusing.  One of the lines that stood out to me today is that we are "stewards of the mysteries of God."  How can we be stewards of God's mysteries if we are going too fast to see those mysteries?  The habits Christians have handed down through the centuries - silence, prayer, contemplation, hospitality, generosity and so on - all require single-minded purpose and focus.

 

My worry is that in our age of multitasking, we forget how to do the things that are so important to keeping us in touch with God.  I am not sure that most of us can be silent.  I am not sure that most of us often have time to be hospitable to strangers, tied down as we are to the internet and to being on call all of the time.

 

Still, if you find yourself, as I do, tiring of multitasking, and finding that the studies are true - that multitasking actually makes me less of a human being - then know that Jesus calls us to something different.  A focus on Jesus and on Jesus' people, one at a time, with generosity and love, is what we need.  This is so difficult.  (In the first few minutes of contemplation for instance, I always tell myself I am bored, that I want to move on, and besides, I need to know who has emailed me in the past three minutes.)

 

We are called to be more than multitaskers - we are called to be people who focus on the mysteries of God and witness to them.  This week, may we find ways to stop multitasking and simply find focus in God.

 

- Jana M. Bennett