6/3/2022 0 Comments Instead of what?There is a lot of talk about phones and how they overwhelm us with information. But what if the greater damage isn't the information the phone feeds us, but the information the phone is denying us.
Because when we are taking something in, we are leaving something out. It is sometimes alarming to me on Sunday when my weekly screen time notification pops up. It tells me how much time I spent on Facebook last week and on Youtube and on my bank app watching my money like it's going to magically appear or disappear any second now. That notification can be alarming. But it might be even more alarming if I thought of it in terms of what I was NOT taking in while I was engaged with my screen. I like Facebook. But Facebook can quickly transition from checking in on my friends to checking out of the world. It can quickly transition from offering a post I hope will feed good to someone else's world to reading endless posts that upset my world. And before long, I'm sucked into the process like I don't have a choice in the matter. But I do have a choice in the matter. Steven Furtick talks about a cycle where we intake information that disrupts our peace and then we ask God to come into our lives to bring us peace. We enter an endless cycle of asking God to take out what we are taking in. What if God's peace became more about spending more time taking in God intstead of pestering God to remove the things I've taken in that disrupt my peace? Maybe the harm isn't the nature of Facebook or video games or the music we listen to. Maybe the disruption of peace is in the 'instead of.' Instead of spending time reading my bible. Instead of going for a walk in the woods to focus on God's creation. Instead of sitting quietly in prayer, giving God time to put on my heart what he wants there instead of the screen time. If we aren't feeling peaceful, maybe it's not totally because life is unpeaceful. Maybe part of it is we're taking in anxiety instead of peace. When my screen time report pops up Sunday, I'm going to save my alarm and simply ask - instead of what?
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Robert "Keith" CartwrightI am a friend of God, a dad, a runner who never wins, but is always searching for beauty in the race. Archives
February 2025
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