Monday 6 May 2013

Why I'm giving up Facebook (a blog about idols)

"Reality check, if you can't give it up, you don't own it, it owns you." - Jefferson Bethke - Counterfeit gods 

I was watching a live stream and someone asked a really great question: 'How do I devote my life solely to God?' The answer came in the simplicity of laying down our own desires for God's desire for us. The answer came in realizing that God's sole plan is for us to pursue Him with everything every single day. Everything else falls into place and is a byproduct of that pursuit.
But how do we pursue God really?
and if the largest percentage of our day is filled with Facebook  twitter, online study, blog posts and text messages, can we really call that a pursuit? If Christ beckons us onwards and forwards, then where does looking to the left and right with this thing called Facebook fit in?
Maybe it all depends on how you use it. I would love to say I go on Facebook every couple of days and write a really encouraging Christ-filled status and then leave again, but that's not the case. For every good intention I had, I wake up and check Facebook before my eyes are even open properly. I scroll mindlessly through my news feed throughout the day just to see things I didn't want to, and hear things that only confuse and distract me. Locked in my room, hunched over a computer screen listening to the sounds of my family outside, wondering how the days go by so quick, all whilst bowing down to this 'god' called 'social media.' It owns me. I never wanted it to but it does and I cant live that way any longer. There are whispers of a real word outside that I want to see, and experience. I want time back. I want to do the things I love, and get the grades I deserve by actually working for them. I wonder what I'll miss out on, but the reality actually is - nothing. If I want to know how my friends and family's lives are going, surely they deserve more than me scrolling through their page and making my own judgments from cryptic statuses and photo's only taken of the highlights.
Pick up the phone and call... Send a text message and arrange to meet in person. You can't truly know a person just by reading what they want everyone to read. I want deeper relationships. I want memories that involve people. I want my kids (when I have them) to not have to fight for my attention, but know that it's theirs - always. I want them to grow up in a world where people actually talk face- to- face and invest in relationships, not fake worlds.

Entertainment has become our highest goal, the thing we seek and feel like we will die without - but that's the deception of it all. We can live without being entertained every second! Remember the days before you had a computer? I do. Remember what it was like to go for a walk with people and actually spend time with them? Remember when kids used to ride scooters and bikes out on the street, when families used to sit down for dinner together and talk about their day? People say it's old fashioned and the world is advancing and we should be grateful - but honestly, I'm tired. It's too easy to use Facebook to hide behind and never let people see the real you. I see it constantly in this generation - people bowing down to the gods of Facebook and twitter and YouTube and internet, TV, DVD'S, iPhone's and cars. I see people bowing down to needing entertainment every second from sources other than people - relationships are being lost, feuds are being started and it's all just so hectic all the time.
The point is - what is that one thing in your life you feel you cant live without? What is that one thing that you just can't give up?  Because here's the cold hard truth: you don't own it, it owns you.

I don't know about you, but I don't want to be owned by anything other than God. I don't want to bow down to anything other than Him. I want to pursue Him wholly, completely. I want to be devoted to Him - single-mindedly. And all I know is, my life is not getting any longer. I don't have any more time to waste. For me, the time is now. The time to claim my life back so I can hand it over to Jesus, is now.

No comments:

Post a Comment