I've been quiet lately about my heart journey in this space.
I think it's because of many things, four of whom are sleeping down the hall as I write.
We've been busy. Life has been full. Busy with life and full of good things, but busy none-the-less and I think this photo sums it up pretty well. When life whirs past us and we feel like we're just sledding downhill trying our best to hang on...what we find at the bottom may surprise us! The whole time down, I didn't hear a peep out of my Rylee Joy. I had no idea she wasn't loving the ride as much as Cora and I. It was only once we slowed to a stop that I could see my girl for where she was. Not a happy camper and in desperate need of her Mama.
This analogy relates pretty well with some thoughts I have about my pace of life lately.
This analogy relates pretty well with some thoughts I have about my pace of life lately.
I recently left Facebook...again. The first time I left I wrote about it HERE and it's grown to be my most read post ever. It's apparent that more than one person could relate to my unhealthy relationship with social media!
I reactivated my account before this past summer Olympic games to follow the journey of a friend who was hopeful to make the Olympic team for the final time in his career. His wife was going to be updating the rest of us back home via Facebook, so I wanted to be sure to stay informed and reactivated my account. Well...the Olympics came and went and my Facebook account remained active.
I reactivated my account before this past summer Olympic games to follow the journey of a friend who was hopeful to make the Olympic team for the final time in his career. His wife was going to be updating the rest of us back home via Facebook, so I wanted to be sure to stay informed and reactivated my account. Well...the Olympics came and went and my Facebook account remained active.
I said it once and I still believe it's true. There is nothing wrong with Facebook. It is morally neutral. But just like chocolate and ice cream (of which I am a BIG fan) too much of a good thing is still...TOO much!
What can I say??? I love people. I really do. I love hearing about how things are going, sitting down with a good friend over coffee and hearing about how God is stirring their heart most recently. So for me, Facebook served as a counterfeit version of community. I would get random snippets of life mixed in with occasional significant requests for prayer or support. Though I truly do miss the latter, the price I had to pay for it was too high. I became detached from those I'm called to first in the name of the rare heart connection with someone many miles away. Precious, yes. But at what cost?
What can I say??? I love people. I really do. I love hearing about how things are going, sitting down with a good friend over coffee and hearing about how God is stirring their heart most recently. So for me, Facebook served as a counterfeit version of community. I would get random snippets of life mixed in with occasional significant requests for prayer or support. Though I truly do miss the latter, the price I had to pay for it was too high. I became detached from those I'm called to first in the name of the rare heart connection with someone many miles away. Precious, yes. But at what cost?
I came across a quote from Mother Teresa that sums it up pretty well for me...
"Never worry about the numbers. Help one person at a time and always start with the person nearest you."
- Mother Teresa
- Mother Teresa
She has encapsulated the way my heart is beating these days. God has wooed me in a way less traveled that looks less at numbers on a screen and more into the eyes of those nearest me in all facets of my life.
Instead of planning a Valentine's Day series for my blog this year, the kids and I planned a neighborhood Valentine's Day party. We hung homemade signs throughout our townhouse complex inviting those we live nearest to, to gather with us this year. As we were planning, I realized I have quite the party planners on my hands! Cole kept giving us more ideas for the party he was so excited to have.
"Mom, we have to have balloons and games too!" he must of told me sixteen times as we were dreaming up ideas for our time together.
The most transparent part of our party planning came when the kids asked who we would invite....
"What about our friends from church?"
"No, not this time," I responded.
"Then who?" they wondered.
"We're going to invite all the kids who live close to us. Our neighbors."
"But what if we don't even know them that well?"
"This will help us get to know them better. Remember your verse from Cubbies last week, Cole? Love your neighbor as yourself..."
"Oh, yeah!"
And so we will...
A party is happening this Valentine's Day...simple and sweet. There will be cookies, there will be crafts, and a homemade game dreamt up by my boys (pin the heart on Heart-man), and most importantly...there will be neighbors who may not yet be friends, but hopefully someday, will.
And all this, because God has called my gaze away from the masses in cyberspace in order to fix more intentionally on the real, live, living breathing world around me.
For the sake of my kids, for the sake of my neighbors, for the sake of the Kingdom of God that has already come in my own world, I open my eyes wide enough to see the life around me.
Maybe someday I'll return to good ole' Facebook. But for now, I know, because I am one who was made for engagement of the most genuine kind, it's time again to say goodbye.
I pray you have a much healthier relationship with social media if you choose to engage. I'll be the first to give you my blessing to leave this blog's Facebook page if it is an added source of distraction to you. The only reason it remains while my personal page does not, is to encourage those who still feel they can remain on Facebook without it pulling them elsewhere. It is not the distraction to me that my other page was at all. But strange as it seems, it would do my heart good, to receive messages of followers who have decided to leave as well. To see the numbers drop off the cyber family only to reappear in the world around them would be a beautiful step of obedience and one I support whole-heartedly.
I like to think big, and sometimes when I'm struggling to gain eternal perspective on a seemingly trivial topic, God takes me on a journey outside of myself and into a place of space and time that never ends.
Eternal perspective.
If I were to gain thousands of "followers" on Facebook or Twitter and lead the masses in the name of Christ yet my neighbor doesn't even know my name...is that love? Hmmm...I know this is sticky, and I don't mean to toss judgement around about those who have a "following" of sorts, but I would say that those who care the least about numbers are the most worth "following" in the first place.
Jesus had a few close friends. He loved the individual well. He took every opportunity to seek His Father's leading...to listen, to speak, to heal, to encourage and always for the glory of the One who sent Him.
And on Valentine's Day...the day of love...and the first day of Lent...when we give up to remember what He gave...we gather with those God has intentionally placed us around. Our front doors face one another, but how often our our eyes and ears closed to the ones He's placed us nearest to.
Lord, my heart longs to follow in the footsteps of your son. I want to stay soft, moldable and responsive to your leading....every step being a significant one in this journey of grace. The same grace you have for me, you have for my neighbor...the difference is, she doesn't know it yet. Help her to know how you love by the way I live...lingering long in conversation, learning to listen to where you're moving below the surface, opening up our home to moments of spontaneous hospitality and watching as you work in us and around us. It is a gift to know and serve you. Help us to love as you loved as we embrace this Lenten season...with dignity, intentionality, patience and grace.
Instead of planning a Valentine's Day series for my blog this year, the kids and I planned a neighborhood Valentine's Day party. We hung homemade signs throughout our townhouse complex inviting those we live nearest to, to gather with us this year. As we were planning, I realized I have quite the party planners on my hands! Cole kept giving us more ideas for the party he was so excited to have.
"Mom, we have to have balloons and games too!" he must of told me sixteen times as we were dreaming up ideas for our time together.
The most transparent part of our party planning came when the kids asked who we would invite....
"What about our friends from church?"
"No, not this time," I responded.
"Then who?" they wondered.
"We're going to invite all the kids who live close to us. Our neighbors."
"But what if we don't even know them that well?"
"This will help us get to know them better. Remember your verse from Cubbies last week, Cole? Love your neighbor as yourself..."
"Oh, yeah!"
***
And so we will...
A party is happening this Valentine's Day...simple and sweet. There will be cookies, there will be crafts, and a homemade game dreamt up by my boys (pin the heart on Heart-man), and most importantly...there will be neighbors who may not yet be friends, but hopefully someday, will.
And all this, because God has called my gaze away from the masses in cyberspace in order to fix more intentionally on the real, live, living breathing world around me.
For the sake of my kids, for the sake of my neighbors, for the sake of the Kingdom of God that has already come in my own world, I open my eyes wide enough to see the life around me.
Maybe someday I'll return to good ole' Facebook. But for now, I know, because I am one who was made for engagement of the most genuine kind, it's time again to say goodbye.
I pray you have a much healthier relationship with social media if you choose to engage. I'll be the first to give you my blessing to leave this blog's Facebook page if it is an added source of distraction to you. The only reason it remains while my personal page does not, is to encourage those who still feel they can remain on Facebook without it pulling them elsewhere. It is not the distraction to me that my other page was at all. But strange as it seems, it would do my heart good, to receive messages of followers who have decided to leave as well. To see the numbers drop off the cyber family only to reappear in the world around them would be a beautiful step of obedience and one I support whole-heartedly.
I would gladly lose friends on Facebook if it meant that the time usually spent browsing my status updates is now spent in conversations with the ones God intentionally placed you near.
I like to think big, and sometimes when I'm struggling to gain eternal perspective on a seemingly trivial topic, God takes me on a journey outside of myself and into a place of space and time that never ends.
Eternal perspective.
If I were to gain thousands of "followers" on Facebook or Twitter and lead the masses in the name of Christ yet my neighbor doesn't even know my name...is that love? Hmmm...I know this is sticky, and I don't mean to toss judgement around about those who have a "following" of sorts, but I would say that those who care the least about numbers are the most worth "following" in the first place.
Jesus had a few close friends. He loved the individual well. He took every opportunity to seek His Father's leading...to listen, to speak, to heal, to encourage and always for the glory of the One who sent Him.
And on Valentine's Day...the day of love...and the first day of Lent...when we give up to remember what He gave...we gather with those God has intentionally placed us around. Our front doors face one another, but how often our our eyes and ears closed to the ones He's placed us nearest to.
Lord, my heart longs to follow in the footsteps of your son. I want to stay soft, moldable and responsive to your leading....every step being a significant one in this journey of grace. The same grace you have for me, you have for my neighbor...the difference is, she doesn't know it yet. Help her to know how you love by the way I live...lingering long in conversation, learning to listen to where you're moving below the surface, opening up our home to moments of spontaneous hospitality and watching as you work in us and around us. It is a gift to know and serve you. Help us to love as you loved as we embrace this Lenten season...with dignity, intentionality, patience and grace.
Oh Danice!!! I loved this post.
I too spend/spent too much time on Facebook. It is actually required of me to have an account being on Young Life College staff-b/c that's the best way of keeping up with kids.
But I hated how much time I would just "check to see what so and so was doing" and how a 5 minute peek would lead to an hour. UGH.
Such a waste of the precious time God has given me.
So this year, I am giving up FB for Lent, and altho its only day 2, I am so excited about this hiatus. I truly hope that I learn not to be on it when I think I have nothing to do.
Without any kids to raise, and living at Woodleaf, my time is more open...I am choosing now to be more intentional with Jesus.
Thanks for sharing. I so admire you and how you LOVE your family and friends...and neighbors too.
I gave Facebook up for Lent two years ago and then decided not to go back. I miss it sometimes, and I do use my husband's account to see what my friends & family are up to occasionally (but he's asked me not to comment in his name, so I don't get sucked in). I think that overall, my life is better without facebook.
This year, I'm giving up twitter for lent... perhaps in a few years, I'll be totally off-line, hahahaha. (That will never happen - I met some of my best friends on the internet first.)
"If I were to gain thousands of "followers" on Facebook or Twitter and lead the masses in the name of Christ yet my neighbor doesn't even know my name...is that love?"
Amen. I so agree with you. It's funny too because we had a Valentine's Day party and invited all the girls in Brynn's class (I didn't want anyone left out) and a girl who lives across the street.
"...those who care the least about numbers are the most worth "following" in the first place."
Oh, Danice, this is something that's really been on my heart lately. I love writing. And I value the relationships I've made through blogging. But the pull for "bigger numbers" can easily sweep us into a current we never intended to follow. The "numbers game" is something I want to steer away from completely. I only want to write what God places on my heart and not worry about numbers and stats at all. Your words here affirm that.
I'm so thankful for your heart for others through writing.