40 Day Fast from facebook - Week 1

Greetings! 40 Day fb Fast Week One

Someplace between Mardi Gras and Ash Wednesday I felt impressed, had the desire, thought it beneficial, to disconnect from facebook.

Why? Because I wanted to do something Christian? Because I wanted to follow the Church Calendar? Because I was getting too distracted? None of the above.

Disconnect is a word that I hear a lot in prison. (I go inside twice a week to teach inmates) In the prison environment it is hard to be alone. Inmates often tell me that they wish there was some way to get alone short of getting put in solitary confinement. There is always noise, always people in your business, lonely lost souls looking to connect but not quite knowing how. (Sort of like fb) So the inmates shut down, disconnect for self preservation more than anything. They stop talking, stop interacting in any deep real sense. They put on their stoic personas and wait out their time. Many have been doing this for decades, not weeks!

I needed space so I disconnected. When I fill up my time and energy, my thoughts and musings, activities and pastimes, I find myself in a similar situation as my inmate friends. (yes they are inmates, and yes I call them friends) My head and heart are too full of petty minutia to think. It's like swimming in the surf with your eyes open but there is just too much froth and foam to see clearly.

There is always the primary goal, then there are secondary and sometimes tertiary gains. Like tossing a rock into a pond there is more than one ripple. I've reached my primary goal. I am absent from fb. Better yet fb is absent from me. (No, I don't have someone else sending me updates)

Secondary gain: time, time to get out beyond the breakers churning the beach. Gently floating on the swells enjoying the vast horizon and the distance from the noise. When the nonsense is absent the substance can be heard. (yes, the latest fake news is nonsense!)

Tertiary gain: two thoughts, both from scripture. First, "My soul makes its boast in the LORD; let the humble hear and be glad." Psalm 34:2. So in my words, when I make my boasting about Jesus, the humble, the lowly, the oppressed, the forsaken, the ordinary, will hear and by hearing become glad. (not the proud, the haughty, or the cocky; these remain deaf) Second, "But those who wish to boast  should boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the LORD who demonstrates unfailing love and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth, and that I delight in these things. I, the LORD, have spoken!" Jeremiah 9:24. Again in my words, boasting in Christ is not about me or my accomplishments but about the character of God! If I am boasting in anything else other than His character then I am posting fake news! Fake news makes no one glad!