shifting

-
Periodically I realize that the quiet life is escaping me. Or rather, I am trying to escape it. I feel the weight of too much television and too many games of Words with Friends. I find myself reaching for my phone as my feet hit the floor in morning, too curious about what transpired in the social media world overnight. And then I realize it's time to take my life back.
We are not, not a single one of us, going to lie on our deathbed and wish we'd spent a little bit more time on Facebook or Instagram or Pinterest.  We are not going to wish we'd answered more emails.  Instead, many of us will deeply regret investing so much online, and so little in the flesh and blood around us.
Sarah's words have made me think. I want to invest more in the flesh and blood around me. I've spent these first months of 2016 reading about loving others and gospel living. Now to live out the lessons I'm learning. I've allowed online discourse to take such precedence in my life that I fear I've forgotten how to engage someone and give them my full attention. I was happy to see that my library has a copy of Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age, which I promptly added to my reading list.

I want to invest more in others, and also in myself. I removed social media from my phone. I am once again committing to a technology curfew each evening. My brain and my spirit need room to breathe, to mull over, to relax. I do not want to be defined or controlled by a handheld device. I do want to think deeply, converse more, learn more.

Computer and phone screens can act as binoculars, bringing the far-off close and making it appear more significant than it actually is. Certainly binoculars have their use, but keeping them to my eyes all the time has blurred my vision and distorted my perception.  To sharply focus on the close-up of my life requires a shift.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Not Feeding the Frenzy

-
Increasingly, we are living our lives in the public forum. Hand-written letters to friends were exchanged for emails, which were exchanged for text messages, which have now been exchanged for tweets and notes on a Facebook wall for all the world to see. Secrets among friends, it seems, no longer exist. Meaningful friendships themselves may soon be a thing of the past. Social media has allowed us to collect "followers" and "friends" like trinkets on a charm bracelet.  We are compelled to share intimate details of our lives with complete strangers, yet we are ashamed to ask those closest to us to pray as we wrestle against sin. We foster, as Carl Trueman writes , an "intimacy of strangers which is such a part of celebrity culture - for example, the faux-chumminess of all those tweeted exchanges and retweets, lives lived as soap operas mediated by the internet..." We brand ourselves with carefully crafted personas, afraid the true person cowering behind t
Read more

A Quiet Life

-
...aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one. ~1 Thess. 4:11-12  Quiet.  One of my favorite words. One of my favorite things. ... low tones of classical music wafting on the air as I'm curled up with a good book.  ...hushed jazzy voices crooning while I clean our home or prepare a meal. ...absolute stillness of a dark morning lit only by a small lamp and the Word of God. ...crickets chirping outside my window as I fall asleep. I enjoy a good football game, laughter, and being with friends. Yet it is in the quiet moments of my life that I feel most alive. My soul craves quiet. Perhaps it's a reaction to years of going, doing, and spending. Maybe it's a result of endlessly trying to meet others' expectations. I believe it's wisdom gained. This blog will chronicle my efforts to attain a
Read more

What I Learned During My Social Media Vacation

-
With the Holy Spirit's prompting - and the grace of God abounding - I gave up Facebook and Twitter during December so that I could focus on the Incarnation and prepare my heart for Christmas. I didn't think I devoted an inordinate amount of time to social media; however, when I announced my intention to my girl and her response was something akin to "Good. You need to given them up.", I knew I needed the break more than I cared to admit. I had already stopped posting anything in this little spot for the final months of 2013. Limited blogging at Out of the Ordinary, permanently paring down my feed reader to precious few, and saying no to Facebook and Twitter has taught me some valuable lessons. ~ Absence does not necessarily make the heart grow fonder. While there may have been a few who felt my absence, I imagine that I was, for the most part, forgotten. Not that I blame anyone; it's the nature of the social media beast. ~ Social media friends aren't alwa
Read more