A recent Time magazine highlights the use of drones not only in the US Military operations but also by estate agents, law enforcement, and farmers. How things have changed! And, the more things change, the more stress is created as we sometimes battle to keep up.

It seems like yesterday that I wrote a letter to our suppliers asking for the distribution of our products in Southern Africa. They advised me to buy a Telex machine to expedite communication. Soon after that, the Fax machine arrived and shortly after that came the internet and e-mail. We were told we will have 2-3 hours a day “extra time” (due to all these conveniences) and that our workload will be much lighter. Exactly the opposite happened. Our smartphones now keep us connected 24/7/365 year in and year out—never giving us a chance to get away from the office or people seeking our attention, advice and decisions. We can rarely just “switch-off” and spend quality time with our loved ones.

The more we stress, the less productive we become, and the more vulnerable we become as we crave to “ease the pressure.” We start taking our eyes off the ball—losing focus on what life is really all about. We replace God with our idols as the pressure in deal-making, sales, turnover and growth push God to one side while we run from meeting to meeting. As we become more vulnerable we enter into inappropriate relationships as we seek to “ease the pressure” and slowly we start destroying our integrity, our relationships and ultimately our families.

Prov. 10:9 says that he who walks in integrity walks securely. But he who perverts his ways, will be found out. The question is whether or not there really is a solution. I should slow down and decide according to whose rules I am going to play – the world’s or God’s, as He gives in His Word. If I choose the latter, then I need to obey it to the best of my ability; I need to take the instructions in Isaiah 58 and Romans 13 seriously, and I need to be a good citizen, an example to those around me, in all my ways, and also in my thoughts.

Spurgeon says that “steady perseverance in integrity, if it does not bring riches, will certainly bring peace. On the other hand, the utmost success through questionable transactions must always be hollow and treacherous, and the man who has gained it must always be afraid that a day of reckoning will come, and then his gains will condemn him.Never, on any account whatsoever, let us do that which our conscience cannot justify. If we lose inward peace, we lose more than a fortune can buy. We may be thought fools by fools if we are firm in our integrity, but in the place where judgment is infallible, we shall be approved.”

Let us be accountable to God and to one another and strive to walk uprightly by seeking His face, His power and His glory every day of our lives. At the end of the day, we stand or fall by the quality of our quiet time—our time alone with God—as an antidote against the cares and the worries of this world.