I am not a huge fan of church traditions because of the way a lot of practices have become mere ritual; but this year I have decided to think about lent in the same way I think about Advent. Advent is a time to prepare ourselves for the coming of Jesus. God became man, he left his throne and the riches, known authority and power he possessed to walk among us and in the same way Advent is for Christmas, Lent can be a season of preparation for easter. Lent is 40 days and traditionally a time to give up something. I decided to take all social media off of my phone and not use all but Facebook on my laptop. I do occasionally look up things on Pinterest, (only from my laptop) because I am remodeling my bedroom but merely for specifics, not to browse. I often use social media to be a time filler, it usually ends up being a time waster and a huge way to feed the struggle I have with comparison. I decided to continue to use Facebook on my laptop because I am in the process of moving overseas and will be networking soon. I decided to continue to leave it available for connecting and posting updates of my blog and my moving statuses.
I think instead of filling time with browsing twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, or updating my whereabouts on Foursquare, I have decided to spend “time fillers” with things that are more productive. I am not saying that those things are bad; they can be mighty tools for the expansion of the gospel but in this season, I have found they are not being used as such. I have chosen to take advantage of Desiring God’s daily devotional “Solid Joys” (its free!) and the “Ask Pastor John” app. (also free!) If I have already done those, I spend time reading the proverb of the day, (there are 31, one for each day of the month) or praying for the Jesus followers I am supporting. Prayer is a great tool because it requires nothing but self to exercise. Its been 2 days so far and I have been blessed to not spend so much of the precious time I have been given on my phone. Its helped me to be more social at places that are easier to ignore people, and a way for me to be more aware of opportunities to say please and thank you, hold open doors, and make friendly conversation. I have the joy of Christ in my soul and I want it to be evident wherever I am. This season of Lent I am praying will be one of much preparation to behold the beauty of the journey Christ took to the cross. The “sacrifice” if you can even call it that, to take those things off of my phone are merely a way for me to spend more time focusing on the things of eternal value. I encourage you not to give something up because so many others are, but to consider giving up something so that your heart would be more full of admiration and gratitude for what Jesus came to do Easter weekend.
Dear Samm, 