I gave up facebook for Lent.
I've never participated in Lent before. I grew up eating fish sticks every Friday for school lunch because my Catholic classmates couldn't eat meat on that one day of the week. In high school, I listened to friends talk about giving up pop or candy or other things for this mysterious religious practice, but I never knew much about it myself. My Baptist heritage didn't teach me much about it.
This year I decided to partake. Life is so hurried, and months come and go before I'm even aware of them. Easter is my absolute favorite holiday, and I didn't want it to suddenly come and go without being ready for it.
So I decided to give up facebook, as it was probably the largest time-sucker of my day (minus my job). I was quite successful and have not logged on once in the past forty days. (After my dad died, my brother would read what friends had posted on my page, so in that sense I may have cheated a bit.)
But the main question is this: Was my participation in Lent successful in drawing me closer to Jesus?
I have to admit, I'm not sure I can say that it did. Each time I consciously avoided logging onto facebook, I was reminded that Easter was fast approaching. So it did help prevent me from being swept away in the hustle and bustle of daily life, and I was much more aware of my favorite holiday.
But I did not substitute my time online for time with God. I found other things to do, and I realized how much time I waste online. But I can't say I deliberately spent that extra time in prayer, meditation, Scripture, or anything else holy.
Is this something I would do again? Probably. Is it something I will do as a spiritual discipline rather than a religious activity? I sure hope so.
1 comment:
I wanted to post something similar. You're right on by saying that the time online should have been substituted with prayer or meditation. I found other things to do, and my Google Reader was always registering "0 new posts" because that's where I spent my time.
I don't think that it was cheating to have your brother read things to you. It was beneficial for you to hear that stuff. I did the same thing when the only way I could watch videos of my nephew was to watch while someone else was on fb.
It would be a good spiritual discipline to be more conscious of the time waster. I will do this again next Lent season. I learned that it's taking discipline to realize when I'm on there just to be on there, and to realize that there are other things I could be doing.
Anyway, long comment, but I can relate to what you went through.
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