Okay, people. We’re three weeks out. You know what I’m talking about – the election. If you don’t already know this about me, I am NOT a fan of politics. I’m not going to get into that, for obvious reasons.
Every morning I do a quick check of socials, both personally and professionally. I read through my timeline and see what everyone’s up to but I also take time to check on work posts and check for any mentions or messages. In my perusing this morning, I ran across an article that led to me literally shaking and nearly in tears – and it was because of my beliefs on a certain political topic and lack of understanding to the perspective of those with a differing opinion.
Like most of us, it’s hard for me when I’m so passionate about something to truly seek to understand the other side. Not to just hear it – but understand and empathize with others who see things differently than you do. Everyone has a right to their own opinion and I 100% believe that no one’s opinion is wrong – you can disagree with someone and still love them. But this morning was just a big reality check into the fact that feelings, emotions and reactions can come out of nowhere – and they can affect ALL of us. I am no exception.
I don’t have control over others’ opinions. I don’t have control over the election. But I do have control with how I spend my time and how what I choose to spend my time with makes me feel. So I’m making a change. I decided that instead of spending so much time on social media, I’m going to make a concentrated effort to spend it with Jesus instead. I’m hoping to get screen time down and Jesus time up.
I went to work on deleting and hiding apps, moving my entire social media, entertainment, food and shopping folders to the second screen on my phone. Due to my jobs, I can’t fully delete social media apps but I can hide them! Hopefully this helps with my Amazon issues too! Haha! I also deleted any apps that I can’t remember using in recent history.
Don’t get me wrong, I will still spend time on social media. I have two jobs in which I’m the social media coordinator and in the case of toreystories, I truly enjoy connecting with people in meaningful ways. But that’s the key word – meaningful. Needlessly scrolling just to scroll, updating my Instagram feed and purposefully checking on everyone’s stories is where I need to improve.
Ironically enough, the spark for unplugging came from something else I saw on social media this morning. In a video shared on Facebook, Andy Stanley spoke about the political climate and gave his advice – it’s a super short clip, maybe three minutes max (his social media director knows that’s the magic number!). He spoke directly to those in their 20s and 30s. He said this quote: “Do not grow weary and do not lose heart because once upon a time, a group of people your age embraced a resurrected Savior and embraced the teaching of a resurrected Savior and a group of people from your generation that were your age changed the world. They did it through faith and they did it through the behavior connected to faith.”
Five words. They did it through faith.
I’ve been living my life through social media. I’ve been going through the days connected to my mini-computer that goes with me everywhere and I’ve not been connecting to Jesus – I’ve not been practicing the behavior connected to faith. It’s no wonder that I’ve grown weary.
So here’s to a change. Here’s to not growing weary. Here’s to doing it through faith.
