Recently I took the plunge and accepted a 40 day Facebook fast.
I was spending way too much time social networking, and it would be an embarrassment to even divulge the details. My phone could have been an additional appendage, though.
My husband would tell me. My kids would tell me. I would see it in other people and think, "It is so annoying that they won't put their phone down." I was fully aware of the log in my own eye, lemme tell you! The reality stung.
I justified my facebook use by confessing my love for people. If I had my way, I would be out with living, breathing [adult] people every day. But, at least half of the week, I'm doing the mom-thing in my dirty house in dirty pajamas, doing the dirty work of teaching little people to be respectful, honoring, decent human beings. It's not CEO work, and certainly not profitable in the natural, but I believe in my life's work and that's why I'm not complaining, but just being honest. Giving up facebook for 40 days was something I thought would be impossible for me, but I began to see how it was hindering my relationship with God. A message to a friend and quick response would comfort my soul and supersede my need for God. I began to loathe this tendency. I would tell my husband, "Just hide my phone! Please!" But he would respond in wisdom, "Why don't you just get victory over this instead of running from it?" Truly, this facebook fast has become a "false comfort fast"
There have been themes in my life confronting issues: running, avoiding, and distracting myself. Surrendering facebook for a season was no different, and I put it off for a long time. Sometimes pursuing freedom hurts at first. Before we have freedom in an area, we have to take authority over it, and before we have authority over it, we have to face it. Often times, it's bigger than us; it's a Goliath and we are called to stand before it in our own wimpy strength and by FAITH, that means have confidence that, God is working in us and through us to defeat what we are facing. It looks like a giant, feels like the impossible, and is literally just submission. That's why David is the MAN! No worries, though. God calls people who instinctively run away to do His work too, like Elijah, and Peter, and Jonah.
Many have come to me and asked, "How's it been off Facebook?" As if I've been traveling overseas, or doing something marvelous and beneficial! How's it been?
Well, it's been easy. Giving up Facebook has been easy because I really love Jesus and I was wanting to give him anything and anywhere I sought comfort outside of His presence. His grace for this season has been sweet and all sufficient, just as He promises. However, intentionally holding up a mirror to my life and allowing every flaw to show, without my favorite anesthetic (*ahem* facebook!) has been most difficult. I am exposing and attempting to rid myself of false comforts every day: nit-picky food planning, spending money, saving money, obsessive cleaning, needing people to validate me, and sugar (I also gave up sugar for 40 days). I have kept a way cleaner house, been diligent about dishes being done, and purged at least two bedrooms of clutter and reordered them completely- and yet, perfectionism is just another false comfort in my life that I am submitting to God.
I discovered something about myself on this fast: I eat standing up. I hide out in a little corner in my kitchen on my phone, standing up. I try to sit down with the baby, and she cries, so I stand up some more. I never sit down. I never rest. God is showing me this great and magnificent Spirit realm where I can enter in to His throne room, and I'm all like "YES, TAKE ME THERE!" Then He tells me, "Okay, just rest." Then, I'm instinctively thinking, "Where's my phone? Where's my false comfort IV? Where's my instant gratification?" It doesn't exist and that hurts. The reality though, what He offers is what I was created for. It's the real deal. I MUST HAVE IT AT ANY COST. I am starting to see, to feel, to tap into something real and tangible that is not simply an IV pouring false comfort into my body, but life in the Spirit that actually renews me day by day. I am yet to attain it fully, but I am learning to rest. I am learning that resting is not counter-productive, but a lifestyle of communion with God.
That is all I can explain right now because my pea brain is still absorbing, while my Spirit is bursting and waiting for brain to catch up. Meanwhile, soul is saying, "Hurry! Get this! I need rest!"
Process is so good. I don't want to be addicted to facebook or any other false comfort, I want to be addicted to having my life renewed.
"For your new creation life is continually being renewed into the likeness of the One who created you; giving you the full revelation of God." Colossians 3:10 (TPT)
"In the same way you received Jesus our Lord and Messiah by faith, continue your journey of faith, progressing further into your union with him! Your spiritual roots go deeply into his life as you are continually infused with strength, encouraged in every way. For you are established in the faith you have absorbed and enriched by your devotion to him!" Colossians 2:6-7 (TPT)
With that being said, in 15 days or so I will be back on Facebook. I am sorry to all of my friends that I have missed your birthdays. To my friends that I have missed your anniversaries. To my friends who have had victories and sorrows, and I wasn't there to share. There is truly so much to celebrate about facebook. There is so much good, so much love and fellowship, iron sharpening in debate, and a camaraderie that spans many miles and seas. Facebook was never the issue in itself, but my own heart. I hope to be back and appreciate all the goodness that Facebook is without using it as an IV in my life to avoid resting or for means of false comfort. I also hope to be a better friend to others, not reaching out for my own validation, but in genuine care and concern. I realize I cannot give what I don't have, and since I desperately want to see all enter into wholeness and freedom in Christ, I cannot afford to attack with intensity any area in my life that is not submitted to God. Attack with intensity, it truly is this, but the application in my own life has been resting. THE IRONY, it brings a big smile to my face.
I will sum this up with a Todd White quote that I cannot stop thinking on, "All God is asking you to give up is who you were never meant to be in the first place." It really is easier than you think.
