I recently went to Ruby Beach on the Olympic Penninsula.
I LOVE the beach. The beach is where I belong.
Even though Pacific Northwest Beaches are cold and rocky and totally different than California beaches, I have come to love them just as much.
I was at this gorgeous beach, surrounded by giant rocks and tide-pools and a pink and orange sunset and amazingness.
But there was a problem.
All around me everyone was looking at all this beauty and peace and majesty,
through a screen.
I will be the first to admit that I am that friend who takes pictures of everything.You can bet if I am somewhere new or doing something fun that I am taking pictures of it and documenting it.
But at the beach I love to just sit and take it all in, and that day I was confused by what I saw.
Let me set the scene a little bit more.
I was sitting on a blanket watching all the wonderfulness around me. I had taken a few pictures and then I was just breathing in the peace and beach goodness. It was a weekend with good weather which drew a lot of people to the beach that day.
That was when I noticed.
A group of five people came up next to us and every single one of them had a camera around their neck. They began snapping pictures left and right and then after 15min of taking pictures they left.
There was a woman walking on the beach with a man and she had both an iPad and an iPhone and alternated taking pictures with both devices as they walked along and then left the beach.
There were many other people who followed the same trend. They came to the beach snapped a few photos and then left as soon as they came.
The only people who remained at the beach longer were those with children who proceeded to run into the water and play in the sand. Despite this, instead of playing with the children and enjoying the majesty, they were taking their share of photos and watching everything that was happening through the screens.
How have we come to this? Where we live a life so attached to technology that we end up living through a screen and don’t stop to smell the beach air and admire the way the ground turns pink as the sunset reflects off the wet sand during low tide. Where we don’t put the phone down and go climb on the rocks exposed by low tide to find starfish, crabs and an explosion of colorful sea life?
What makes us live in a society where everything we do from the food we eat to the cliff we jumped off of must be documented and Instagrammed? I am not trying to condemn this, because I am guilty of it myself, but I have begun to wonder why. My day at the beach really made me see the reality of what technology has done and how it can hinder our experiences.
My day at the beach is the reason I have decided to leave my phone at home for the next year.
This is a big deal for me.
Me and my phone are quite the pair.
At Training Camp they talked to us about leaving phones at home and highly encouraged it, but I was not convinced.
But now I know it will be a decision I won’t regret. Will I regret not instagramming more? Or will I regret not being more engaged with the ministry I am working with? Will I regret not being able to text my best friends back at home? Or will I regret not connecting with my squad mates on a deeper level?
I am not taking my phone on the race because that is what I feel convicted to do. Adventures in Missions has not told me I can’t take it and my phone is not sad that it will be left behind.
This trip is about Abandon.
Abandoning your stuff and abandoning your comforts. My phone is a comfort, it connects me to people and it connects me to social media. If God is calling me to abandon to grow in my relationship with Him, what better way to do it than leave behind one of the things holding me back the most?
I will still be bringing my camera and laptop to blog and email so that I can keep everyone updated and to post some of my photos.
By not bringing my smartphone it will make it harder for me to whip out my phone for pictures, texts and will distance me from social media. I will continue to keep a regular blog so be sure to subscribe with your email on the left hand side!
