Disconnected

If you don't know me personally, it probably came as a shock to you that I don't have social media on my phone. How can anyone, especially someone who blogs as faithfully as I do, not be constantly connected? (Yes, for the record, I write every single blog on my desktop, as well.) 

Well, let me tell you something else: on Sundays, I don't even turn my desktop on. 

It's one way that I recognize Sabbath rest. 

Follow that with me for a minute: I don't keep social media on my phone. I only use social media when I am on my desktop. I don't carry video games with me, either. And for one entire day every week, I don't even use my desktop computer. That's 24 full hours (actually more because I do not get up at midnight to turn my computer back on) in which I am completely disconnected from the world that exists on the Internet. 

And...it hasn't killed me. And...the internet is still there on Monday morning. And...I'm still not stressed about it because I don't have to catch up on all the things that happened while I was busy living. Again, I look at the things I want to look at, engage with the things I want to engage with, and walk away when I'm done...and I don't take it with me. It doesn't follow me around. 

A lot of folks think that a Sabbath is an antiquated practice in today's world. That maybe I think myself more highly religious than other folks because I observe one. But...a couple of things. 

First, God never said that He commanded a Sabbath until and unless we had something better to do on His holy day. The Sabbath was not created for men who had to work the field; it was created before sin. It is innate to our being, our created and "very good" being, to need a rhythm of rest. And...my life is better for it. 

Second, my Sabbath is not about you. It's not about setting myself apart from you. It's not about me feeling particularly holy or righteous or religious. Actually, if I'm being honest with you, my Sabbath practice brings into focus how harried and unrighteous I've become through the course of even just six days trying to live in this broken world, torn between all of the things the world says I have to do and be and say and like and tolerate and support and buy and whatever else...and the weariness in my soul that can't help but build because there's something in me that cannot seem to forget that I wasn't made for this. This isn't the kind of life I was created for.

So I log off. I disconnect. I spend one entire day each week purposely removed from all of the things that make the space of my soul smaller. 

I read. I take long walks with the dog. I run. I go to church and talk to folks face-to-face. I look up and notice things. I celebrate the goodness of God. I sleep in a little bit longer, make myself a real breakfast. I watch some sporting events on the TV, the actual TV, and talk about them with the other persons sharing the same physical space instead of throwing random comments out into the universe for whoever might be out there wanting to read them - probably someone who is in their own space watching the same thing. 

In fact, the day each week in which on the surface, I am most disconnected...I tell you, that's the day that I feel most connected.