My Addictions

Last week was a good week. A weird, uncomfortable week but a good week. Early morning last Sunday I was chatting with God and I realized how absorbed I'd gotten in Facebook and television. I hardly did anything else with spare time. There was eating (with t.v.), sleeping (prefixed with Facebook followed also by Facebook), playing with Wesley (with my phone in hand so I could check updates on Facebook when he wasn't looking and oh we would usually be watching t.v.) and work (won't go there on the internet ;) ). Should I even mention that my then "spare time" was spent on the internet chatting with Facebook peeps?

So I decided I should probably take a week off and get my priorities straight. That was a tough call. People may laugh at me calling this an addiction but anyone with a true addiction whether it be drugs, alcohol, porn or even just something like danger or, yes, t.v. knows that its easy to say you will quit its much harder to actually do so.

I had it in my head to do it but through the morning even though I didn't look at Facebook I was unsure I would actually make it through the day.

As I said, it was Sunday. I was scheduled to be an usher at church that day too so we got to church early and I did my ushering thing. Usually on those weeks I don't get to hear much of the message because I'm busy doing a bunch of other stuff.

That day I did catch the end of the message though. I don't know if the whole thing was about this but the end of it Pastor Joe was talking a lot about distractions. He spoke on how there was so much in our lives these days that get in our way of hearing God's voice. He brought up the scripture about being still before God.

Psalm 46:10 - He says, "Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."

I had actually had this in my head when I was deciding to take a week off of Facebook and television. I took this as a strong confirmation from God that I should do it.

So that day I got on Facebook only once and that to just tell others what I was doing so no one would think I was dead. Not sure it was truly necessary but I did it anyway. There might be a lesson there too but not today.

I made it the whole week without looking at Facebook. It was tough though. I kept wanting to check and see what people were up to every five seconds. I had to truly will myself not to look at my phone.

Plus my plan was not to completely drop Facebook but to come back to it after the week was up so I left my preset tabs on my browser in place. I just didn't look at them. This caused me a problem at one point during the week as someone, I didn't know who at the time, had saw I was online and was pinging me to chat. I could hear the ping but it took a conscience effort to not click over and see what was up.

I also neglected to turn off some of the Facebook notifications I got via email and text message. I wasn't about to get on Facebook to turn them off though. Luckily I didn't get much; a few messages from those commenting on my post that I was getting off. That wasn't bad as it was pretty much right after the post so I didn't feel hypocritical reading those via the text. Plus a guy I haven't talked to in years posted on my wall during this week. I read what he had to say via the email but I didn't respond to him until the week was over.

I made a stupid mistake early on in the week. I wasn't going to Facebook anymore so I decided to jump on the Android Market and see what was there to play with. I found Scrabble (I love Scrabble) and downloaded it. You get to play other people connected to the app and the game isn't continuous through an hour or something it actually continues until its done. So if it takes a day for someone to place their word then it takes a day. Your turn.

Well, I was playing probably ten people at once to fill my time. It took me a couple days to realize that I had just replaced one addiction with another. So I'm sure I've pissed off a few opponents who are stuck with a board that will never get finished because I won't be back.

The most hilarious thing though was that there was a few times during the week that I was complaining to myself about how hard this was. I literally thought to myself, "I should post a comment about this on Facebook". In a very sad way it was like one of those times when a person loses a friend and finds themselves turning to talk to them constantly before remembering they aren't there anymore. I hate to make that comparison as the friend issue deserves sympathy but the Facebook issue deserves a slap to the back of the head.

So as I said, I successfully made it through the week. I'm now back on Facebook. I'm attempting to limit my time on there, though. I've decided I will allow myself time to review it before work, at lunch and at bedtime but not any other time during the day. That's good, right?

Well, its good to limit Facebook but it brought up a new topic this morning during my Bible reading that will be for a new discussion. You see, if I'm dedicating so much of my time, even if limited, to reading Facebook why am I dedicating so little to talking to God? I really need to work on my priorities for more than just a week.



Visit Christian Eye at http://christian-eye.blogspot.com