Japan has been a very interesting month for my faith. I went from a spiritual high living and doing ministry in the Ghetto last month to a place full of luxuries. These luxuries have gotten in the way of my growth. They have distracted me. I am broken with the fact that I have lost the momentum I was gaining over the past few months of my race. I am broken that I have lost my momentum to something that is so surface level.
I now understand how much the internet and social media can take a hold of my life. Over the past few months I haven’t had internet, so when I did I was very intentional with my time. I would get things done that needed to get done and didn’t spend too much time surfing the web just to surf. This month I have internet daily. I have found myself using it just to use it, but that isn’t even the worst. I have let social media get to my head. For instance; Japan is an absolutely beautiful country, so I have been posting a lot of pictures. I have found that my thoughts throughout the day are wondering who liked them. Talk about getting my daily worth from a meaningless thing… A stinkin’ picture. These thoughts throughout the day about who liked my pictures and surfing the web just to surf have diverted my attention away from God.
Last month I would spend every night in the Bible or diving into prayer and listening to Gods voice. This month it has looked a little different. Most of the time, I go on the internet and see if anything has changed. Before long I am just scrolling through just to scroll. This is what has taken away my time from praying. SCROLLING! I don’t dive into prayer because I get too tired. I don’t dive into my bible because my eyes are tired from staring at a screen.
I finally have reached a place where I feel like I am lacking something. SURPRISE! Social media will never make me feel complete! If anything it makes me feel empty. I now realize that I am lacking God because I am not clothing myself in the armor of God each day, but am clothing myself in thoughts about the internet. Talk about a weak missionary. Someone that is too distracted to have life changing conversations with people because I am more concerned about going home to post a picture.
I now know that God needs to continually come first. If I don’t have God, then what I do throughout the day will be unfruitful. If He doesn’t come first, then I will be doing things for self-glory and will not be growing into the man that I want to be. I luckily have identified this distraction before it became more of a problem. I am happy to say I am now back on track!
What things are distracting you from being with God each day?
