So, it’s June 30 and it’s the last day that I’m allowing myself to get on Facebook for awhile, for reasons I will talk about in a minute. But first, let me update you about my plans for this blog. As God works on putting to death the desires of my flesh so that I can grow in knowledge of and relationship with Him, I am going to do a lot of my journaling on here. I love to write down my talks with God, and while most of them remain private, I know there will be several things He shows me during my day-to-day walk that will be good for me to write about on here. I also love to share new things He reveals to me in hopes that you can benefit from it as well. One of the reasons I haven’t blogged a lot is because I don’t have a whole lot of “free time”, but when I do it has usually been spent on Facebook.
Ok, so here is where a series of embarrassing confessions begin. Sigh.
Sometimes I actually MAKE free time to check my Facebook when this “free time” I speak of really doesn’t technically exist. For example: at red lights, in checkout lines, while cooking and waiting for the water to boil, at night while I should be sleeping. (Don’t judge me!) I justify it by saying I am speaking into people’s lives and desiring to be a light in the darkness. After all, I don’t typically use Facebook to keep everyone updated about every detail of my day. I don’t play any of the games on Facebook and I don’t spend a lot of time going through everyone’s stuff. I like casually browsing through the newsfeed, talking with family and close friends, e-mailing, and I love writing comments/posting on people’s walls. Sounds pretty harmless, right? I’ve thought so for a couple years now. And now lately I’m thinking… I’m in trouble.
I’m afraid to tell you why, because I don’t want to be judged. But the truth is, if most people that frequent Facebook daily were honest, they are in my boat. Maybe you are in my boat? Either way, I'll tell ya why:
I am in trouble because I haven’t hungered for God day-to-day as much as I have hungered for Facebook. Therefore, Facebook has been an idol in my life. An idol is anything we place before God. Anything that we crave or love or think we need more than we crave, love, and need God. Now, I have tried justifying this in a variety of ways. Want to hear how? Sure ya do.
“It’s not an idol, God… if someone placed a gun to my head and told me they’d shoot me if I told them I love You, I’d get shot! But if they told me they’d shoot me if I told them I love Facebook?! That would never happen.”
“God, it’s not an idol! I don’t worship it, I don’t live for it.”
"I think about you nonstop, God. You know this."
And to my justifications, He gently asks…
“Do you carry around your Bible everywhere, hungry to open it up and read it whether you’re at a red light or walking to class or waiting in the checkout line? Do you keep your Bible close by while you cook? Do you hunger for what's in My Living Word like you hunger to read what's in your newsfeed?”
OUCH.
Do you see how satan works? He deceives us and wants us to use a voice of logic or reasoning with God or ourselves to justify our sin. (Go back to my paragraph about "making free time" and you can hear me trying to defend myself even there.) He’ll do anything he can to keep us from the God who is offering us unconditional love and eternal life… but it does cost us something if we accept God’s offer:
Then Jesus said to them all: "If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” -Luke 9:23
“Deny himself” doesn’t mean do whatever you want as long as it makes you feel good. It doesn’t mean that you are in charge to do what you feel is best. It doesn't mean God is in agreement with you just because you've decided something is harmless. It is the opposite of "Justify yourself" or "Defend yourself". It means to turn away from your will and to follow Christ’s will for your life. And this is so hard for all of us at any point in time because we like to be in control of our lives and everything in them and we tend to be very stubborn creatures. I have yet to meet anyone who is willing to admit without hesitation when they’re wrong. Heck, I rarely meet people who will even consider that there is a chance that they might be wrong.
But here's the game changer: We were bought with a price… the very blood of Jesus Christ. So we cannot say we accept that sacrifice and we want to take up our cross daily if we aren’t willing to make Him Lord over our every single day-to-day choices, such as how we spend our free time. Such as how we spend our money (which, in reality, is His. Everything you own is His if He is your God... therefore I guess you don't really own anything but rather things have been entrusted to you to use for His glory). He is Lord over our entire lives when we accept Him. No detail goes untouched or unnoticed to Him. He's supposed to be our God 24 hours a day, not just when we decide to pray or worship or read our Bibles or go to church.
Yall might think I’m crazy, that I’ve went off the deep end, that I’m too radical or take God’s Word too seriously, and that’s fine. You aren’t the first, nor will you be the last. I'm not giving up Facebook or seeking to follow His commandments because I feel like I have to. I am doing these things because I LOVE my Savior, my Creator... and it's about time I do a better job of proving it. When I ask myself, "Why don't I desire to pull out my Bible in the free moments? Where is my hunger to know Him more?", I can't come up with a good excuse. I'm left face-to-face with the fact that I choose distractions over my First Love. I've heard it said that the Bible is the best love story ever written, and it's so true. The Creator in love with His creation. The Holy Blameless One taking on the penalty of a shameful death so that the sinner can have new life in Him and they can spend eternity together. The Father whose heart beats, "I love you. I love you. I love you."
I love reading my Bible- it is packed with exciting, awesome, awe-inspiring revelations of God... Who He is, what's He like, what's He hate and love, what He expects and desires from us that He created, and so on. And He will reveal those things to me more and more, if only I will change my mindset from only reading my Bible during quiet time to needing His Word like I need my next breath.
So here’s where I stand with Facebook: It didn’t die for me out of sacrificial, amazing love. It never satisfies me for more than the moments I’m on, because it doesn’t fit rightly in the places of my heart, mind, and soul that were made solely for God. I don’t want to stand before God after I die and try to explain why I spent so much time soaking up media, chasing after things because the need we all feel to be entertained. This is the same realization that made me give up watching tv a couple years ago, but if I’m gonna be honest I probably spend almost as much time on Facebook as I used to spend watching “my shows”.
Please don’t get me wrong- Facebook itself is not evil. I have seen a lot of good take place because of Facebook: Friends and family are able to stay in touch that would've otherwise never been able to, testimonies are shared, people are encouraged, and the Gospel is being preached. I’m thinking when Matthew wrote, “this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come (ch. 24 v. 14)” that he had no idea God was going to use such a widespread, easily accessible thing like Facebook as one pathway to telling the world about Jesus.
But when Facebook finds a place of importance in our day-to-day lives and sucks away precious minutes or hours that we will never get back, it is evil. Or when we find ourselves judging others for their pictures or posts, it is evil. Or when we slip into jealousy of someone’s vacation or material possessions or their seemingly perfect life, it is evil. When we post pictures or update our statuses with the hidden agenda of wanting for someone to envy us, it is evil. There is good, and there is evil. Contrary to popular belief, there is no gray area in between.
That being said, after I come back to Facebook in August, I know I’m going to have to limit my time to 5 minutes each night, all of which will be used to communicate and not to see what everyone else has going on (unless babies are born… I’m a sucker for babies). I trust that if we are friends or family, you will call or text or e-mail me if there's something going on in your life that you want to share with me. Some of you may think I’m crazy because either you don’t even feel the need to check your Facebook every day or because there’s no way you could get all your Facebooking done in 5 minutes. Either way, I just want to challenge you to analyze how you spend your time each day. How much time is spent on ________, and how much time is spent pursuing the God who pursues you?
