I'm a hopeless wanderer.
You may be asking yourself why I'm deactivating my Facebook?
There's not a really big reason, but there are a few small ones.
There are some reasons I believe that are important enough to choose a slower paced, non-social-media lifestyle.
Here’s some reasons for my break:
I want to see that real friendships still exist. After so many people have talked about how easy it is to know everything about someone from Facebook. How easy is it to be a true friend with someone? I’m challenging deeper friendships in my life. I don’t want to be your Facebook friend, I want to be your real life friend. I don't want to have 900 Facebook "friends" and have them know all about my life.
I want to do things differently, step out and be the change I want to see. I want to invest in people who are surrounding me. Invest in every moment, i won’t get it back. I want to soak up this year and the people that I'm with.
I enjoy challenging myself now and then, and this year is about growth and change right? So why not? Why not just sacrifice Facebook for a period of time?
This isn’t something to take lightly!
I know we all have busy lives, we have things that distracts us and by no means does anyone want to be guilted into the whole “ahh I don’t spend enough time with Jesus” mindset, that sucks. I hate that feeling! And that's how I've been feeling lately. There's just as many distractions on the world race as there are in the US.
We are not obligated to spend time with The Lord.
He just longs for time with you. Longs to open your eyes to beautiful things, revelations unique to you, enhance special moments you might miss, and He wants to minister to your heart as you do the same to His.
I've been realizing some scary things.
I've realized that my heart is being exposed. My mind is being invaded. My inspiration is being starved. My sense of adventure is being smothered. My awareness of life and beauty and the world outside is being given away.
I've realized that in the world of complete access to anything and anyone anywhere, I am losing my sense of wonder. I've realized that unearned access into people's lives is costing me relationships I could have built.
I'm distracted by trying to capture the perfect picture for Instagram. I'm worried about trying to take a picture that perfectly describes how wonderful my life is at that moment. I'm so concerned about capturing a beautiful moment of a person. To really soak up the moment.
I've realized that while noise isn't a problem, distraction is. I've allowed myself to use social media as a means of distraction. In my desire to be 'inspired'. I've begun to find myself tuning out while listening to friends describe moments of their lives.
Coming to this realization has been slow. It's taken years in fact. Very gradually my case against my own distraction has been building.
Social media has torn me down. I'm done with checking my notifications mindlessly. I'm done with waiting for comments on my pictures. I'm done with being proud of the amount of 'likes' I get on a status. The stupidity overwhelms me. I'm saddened by the realization of how far gone I've always been.
I'm ready to hear God's voice again. Ready to sit in silence and waiting for him to speak. Ready to laugh with my friends and hear his laughter with ours. Enjoying what his creation has created.
I'm leaving the Facebook scene. This is a hard step for me. As a photographer especially, i like to show people how beautiful God has created this world, show how beautiful people are, show people the poverty that happens that they may not see.
For a long time I've allowed this reason to be my excuse for remaining involved in social media.
With all that being said my Facebook break is to allow more time spent pursuing God as I grow in this relationship.
FINANCIAL UPDATE: I have $2,266 to raise by December in order to stay on the race for the entire 11. If you You can send money online through my blog lauraquam.theworldrace.org under the "support me" tab.
