Hey there! If anyone is still sticking with me here in blog land, and you've read many of my previous posts, you may remember that I did a media fast a couple years ago, after reading the book Seven by Jen Hatmaker. Although I adapted my fast quite a bit differently from the ones described in the book, I called it my Seven fast because Jen had inspired me to do it. Media was the main area where I had an issue and needed to clear space in my life for deeper relationship with God. In fact it still is. And I have not fasted media since the 21 days I set apart that October.
Therefore I have decided it is high time I take myself in hand again and make the choice to do some hard things for the sake of seeking Jesus more purposefully. I'm doing another fast. And I'm putting it out before whoever reads this blog, again, as a way of holding myself accountable. This will be similar to my Seven fast in that it focuses on pulling away from media and setting times to purposefully spend with Jesus instead of entertaining myself.
In thinking about the concept of Seven, I was reminded that God spent six days creating the earth, and on the seventh day, He rested. I think it is fitting to call this a fast of rest. It is a time to rest from the constant noise, bombardment, and distraction of media like movies, Facebook, and endless internet surfing. You know how sometimes when you have been surrounded by constant noise input and then you turn it all off, you feel this sigh of relief. You can feel the silence settling on you like the feeling of sinking your head into the pillow at night. I have an addiction to noise. And sometimes I know I need to just turn it off. Because how can you hear God when you always have the noise on? I also have an addiction to virtual reality. I like the way I can escape into a dream world when I watch a movie, or let myself get lost in Youtube. I like the way it makes me feel. But it inhibits me from living fully in reality. From being engaged in my real life. From investing in my real relationships, the greatest of those being my relationship with my Creator and Redeemer, Jesus Christ.
So this fast is about rest. It's about clearing out some of the worst noise and distraction that keeps my attention off Jesus. It's about coming to rest in Him instead of escaping into a virtual reality or just drowning everything out. It's a focused time to center myself back on Jesus and His greater reality that is unseen, but more real than what we can see and hear and touch right now.
I'm keeping it simple. I'm limiting my Facebook time to one day a week. Except for the couple minutes it takes to link a blog post. Because I have a lot of thoughts going on that I want to write about. And I think part of my fast should include making time to write more regularly. I'm limiting my computer time. I need to be on it for business and personal emails, and I still want my worship music, but my goal is to spend less time on the computer altogether and to shut it down by 9:30 at night and do something different before bed. There are some good spiritual things I could read or listen to online that I won't necessarily abstain from completely, but come to think of it, I should try leaving the computer off at least every other day! Even the good things can be a big distraction. We simply don't need that much input. I don't believe we were built to take it all in.
As far as movies go, if my family is going to watch something together, I'll participate, but otherwise no movie watching on my own or with my little sister for pure entertainment. It's just too much of a habit for me.
And the most important thing is not simply to abstain from these things for a season, but to replace them with something better, something that has eternal rewards. Built in with that is some much needed discipline being reinstated in my daily routine. Getting up earlier so I can spend at least 30 minutes first thing in the morning focused on Jesus. Going to bed earlier so I can handle getting up! And ending the day with another focused rest time with Jesus.
I started on Resurrection Sunday and I'm doing it for the rest of the month. And hopefully you'll be hearing more from me on here as I'll be creating more space for my heart and mind to think and hear from God and write!
On Resurrection Sunday, we celebrate new beginnings. Life out of death. Beauty out of ashes. Joy out of suffering. So I find it fitting to begin again to practice saying yes to Jesus. This fast is one way I can do that. Saying yes to Jesus isn't easy. But it is an adventure. And it will bear fruit. There hasn't been much useful fruit coming out of the default mode of my life these days. So it's time to regroup. It's time to pull out and rest from the things that weigh me down. It's time to let God redeem the time. It's time for a new beginning.
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