I’m gonna tell you all something really crazy. Last night the Lord told me to give up all forms of social media for the next 11 months. I’m going to tell you something even crazier, I’m going to do it.
Whether I’m spending three minutes or for three hours, I have begun to notice these main reactions over the past few months when it comes to social media.
The first thing that happens when I get on social media is that I completely check out. Wherever I am, whatever I’m doing, if I get on my phone to browse my feeds, I can no longer be present. I even tell people “sorry I was on my phone so I heard none of what you just said, can you repeat yourself?” How dangerous is this for our world that we are a people walking around totally checked out of reality? There have been times where I’ve looked up from my phone, eyes semi-glazed over and realized that an hour passed and I don’t remember anything that happened around me and I learned probably nothing of significance on my phone either.
The second thing that happens is I stop pursuing relationships, unintentionally. If I see everything everyone ever does, why would I need to call them or email them to specifically reach out to them and ask them about their life? Further, how can I feel at all slighted when people don’t pursue me either? (which I do). They see everything that ever happens in my life on my profile too, so why would they need to? I’ve stopped pursuing deeper relationships and become content with surface level. You can’t love people well in surface level relationships and the Lord wants more for His people than that.
The last thing I’ll go into detail about is that I begin rely on social media more than I rely on God. Social media can be an awesome tool when you’re remaining dependent on God for provision and not on social media. I hate that when I look back on my fundraising journey I feel as though I wouldn’t be where I am without social media. That’s not true. I have raised almost $11,000 because of God. Social media was an instrument He used to prompt people to donate towards my world race,which is awesome. In my case, it became a problem when I started to feel more and more as though it was Facebook that provided the money for my trip and not God, which is a total lie and attempts to steal glory from God. The purpose of my life is to bring glory to God.
For the sake of being vulnerable with you guys, here are a few other things that happen when i’m on social media. I compare and who I am/what I’m doing/where my life is become not enough. I have contempt, I begin to dislike people and the way they present themselves, brag on themselves, hate on people. I’m called to love people, not hate them, and especially not dislike people I don’t even know. I become judgmental, angry, discontent, and even misrepresent myself. I seek affirmation from people and I begin to base my worth from the responses I get or don’t get online.
Now please hear me when I say I’m not condemning any of you or your decision to be on social media. When I come back from the World Race, I’ll probably come back to social media. In my particular journey, I need to give this up for the sake of finding more in Christ. When I come back I hope I will be able to discern if my heart has changed towards social media and to be strengthened to be able to leave it again if necessary.
You may have some questions such as:
How are we supposed to stay in touch with you?
Email is a wonderfully easy thing and I will check my email as often as I can while I am away. I will commit to you that I will respond to you if you email me via gmail. I will also respond to you if you leave a comment here on my blog. My facebook and Instagram accounts will remain but please do not expect a response if you try and contact me through these methods. I will be posting blogs on here. Our goal as racers is to post once a week if possible. I’m going to aim for 6-8 times per month. A lofty goal but I’m hoping to be able to do that.
How can you not share your journey with us, your awesome supporters?
II will definitely still be sharing my journey with you all, my awesome supporters. I would never leave you guys in the dark. Instead of using social media as my platform off sharing my journey with you, I will instead be using this wonderful tool that Adventures in Missions provided for us, my blog. I am actually really excited to focus i on this blog and be able to concentrate more energy and effort into sharing my journey right here. I love writing and I love photography and I do not need Facebook or Instagram to do that. I will be posting pictures and at least one blog per week on here.
Why are you doing this again?
I want to be intentional and focused with my 11 months. The Lord asked me to do this so He’s going to be faithful to provide strength to do it, funds without using Facebook, and a better connection with the Holy Spirit, with people, and with myself. I am actually really excited to simplify my life in this way during this year. I have a lot of growing to do and the Lord is going to transform me this year, I know He will.
Feel free to question me futher if you still don’t understand. I’d be happy to discuss it with you guys!
I love you guys and I really appreciate your support for this crazy thing that I am doing. I can’t wait to see how the Lord uses this very small in the grand scheme of things sacrifice to grow me closer to Him. Putting this on here is making myself accountable to giving up social media. Please feel free to encourage me, ask me how I’m doing with this particular challenge, hold me accountable, fast (for as long as you want) if you’d like to as well.
We are currently in the airport about to head out to Medellin after a long travel day. We will be in Colombia in the next few hours. The next time I talk to you guys, it’ll be from Colombia!
