Part 1 in a series on social media discipleship.

For Lent, I stayed off of Facebook, cut back significantly on TV/movies, and tried to manage my time spent on the phone with other social media. What I desired was more time to spend with Jesus, more free space in my day and in my head.

Here’s what I learned/experienced:

I Don’t Need Facebook and it Doesn’t Need Me
In regards to giving up Facebook, the 6 weeks off of it flew by. As Easter approached, I kept thinking to myself, “I can’t believe it’s almost here. I’ve hardly missed it.” I got used to being off Facebook really fast. It’s not hard to function without. I don’t feel like I missed out on anything, and I feel like it hardly missed me (which is good).

I Was Less Stressed
Taking away my access to a constant stream of bad news and tension, I was able to take a breather. I don’t encourage ignorance of world news, but I would encourage having healthy boundaries with how much we engage with each other’s opinions on what’s going on in the world. There are so many different perspectives out there that are worth hearing, but we’ve taken healthy discourse to an unhealthy level- making personal jabs at one another for the sake of feeling right. It was nice to be away from that.

I Have a New Vision
Considering all the madness being shared online, I have decided I am going to narrow what I post even more now. I want to use my social media accounts to share the Gospel and speak truth. I want people to know Jesus. So fair warning- more and more Jesus stuff to come. (And if that bothers you…well, he wants you and loves you and can make it right.)

My Thought Life Needs a Major Clean-Up
All these weeks being away from this community/network/content stream got me thinking about my thinking. So much of what I see and watch stays in my brain, floating around for the rest of the day, if not longer. I think that this has had a negative impact on me for a while. And I’m suspicious that a lot of the anxiety and depression that this generation deals with is exacerbated by the constant stream of darkness on our news feeds.
Over the past 40 days, I also noticed that when I was bored/sad/lonely/thinking about hard things, I had an impulse to turn to my phone. I wanted to be distracted. I didn’t want to sit in silence, thinking about the hard stuff. I wanted to ignore it.
Don’t we all do this now? Don’t we turn off our brains and turn to the world wide web for solace? The craziest thing is that once we get there, in a matter of a click or swipe, we are met with more hard things to think about, tension between people, or entertainment that normalizes sexual abuse and violence.
I mean, it’s either that, or kitten videos (which I have nothing against).
Where are the people in the church discipling us on how to survive in this crooked and depraved generation? How do we have a chance at even calming and clearing our minds of this madness and muck?
Any time I ask those kinds of questions, God invites me to be the answer.
So here I am. I want to share that my thought life is no good- I am treacherous inside this skull. I am murderous, angry, foul, and sexually immoral. I am a liar, a coward, and incredibly selfish. I imagine ways to get what I want and dream up conversations that should or should have happened.
However, God has been engaging in this conversation with me for the last several months.

One verse that I can’t get out of my head is Philippians 4:8-

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

I have been holding my thoughts to this verse, and a lot of times they don’t stack up. I think that God wants us to always think about him- because he is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. So much of what goes on in my head isn’t right or true or praiseworthy.

So what do I do?

First of all, I want to kick the habit of scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, filling my mind with endless facts and stories that won’t matter later. Secondly, I want to sit in the silence of my thoughts more often, and work through the pain that comes up there. That’s where God is. We have to make room for his voice. He’s not in the endless scrolling on Facebook- unless, of course, you come upon a helpful article or blog. (wink wink)

I just long for freedom from the darkness in my mind, and freedom from my bad habits. I want to be clear headed and have the peace of God that guards my heart and mind. Paul so often speaks about focusing on Jesus, and fixing our eyes on him in order to have that freedom. What could go wrong, when I’m trying to make it my habit to think on all the good things?

What about you? Is the world behind your skull pretty dark and chaotic like mine? If so, I pray a prayer of blessing and the Holy Spirit over you. That God would heal us completely, and finish the good work he started in us.