Four Reasons Why I’m Going on an iFast from My iPhone
I love my iPhone. Really, I do. But I’m writing this blog before hanging up my iPhone to start two weeks of self-imposed iFasting. I think it will do me a lot of good spiritually.
I’m not sharing this with you to impress you or even to tell you that you should go on an iFast as well. I just want to challenge you to re-think the way you manage technology in your own life as a Christian. I want to encourage you to think about these Four Reasons Why I’m Going on a Two-Week iFast from My iPhone.
Reason #1: Losing network coverage is good
I have been struck recently reading the gospels by the way that Jesus chose to use his time. He drew crowds, vast crowds. He saw miracles, mighty miracles. He preached sermons, life-changing sermons. And yet he was often found in secluded places where he went because he knew that the crowds could not get hold of him there. Mark 1 tells us that “Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: ‘Everyone is looking for you!’” Jesus, they chided him. There are crowds of people out there; it’s time for you to get busy social networking. “Jesus replied, ‘Let us go somewhere else … That is why I have come.” He had spent time with his Father and heard words to re-direct his activity that morning.
We all have moments of down-time in our days. The train ride, waiting at the doctor’s, the ten minutes of clock-watching for a friend who is late for a rendezvous. It’s easy to fill those times with texting and emailing, checking our Facebook Newsfeed, or playing with any one of our many phone apps. But I’m discovering that I need those moments to gulp deep breaths of fellowship with my Father. I need those moments of solitude and calm to reach out to God in the busyness of the day. I need to get away from the crowds, not always have them in my pocket, so that I can hear God speaking and giving me direction for each moment, just like Jesus in Mark 1.
God has honoured us with the mind-blowing privilege of being his friends. There is a word for any gadget which distracts us from that calling in the down-times of our day. If it happens too regularly, our iPhone is an iDol.
2) Reason #2: My family don’t want to be my Facebook Friends
Justin Hyde recently blogged on The Resurgence that “If you touched your wife as much as you touch your iPhone, your marriage would be in a much better spot.” I think he’s right.
A few nights ago, I found myself lying in bed with my beautiful wife … looking at something on my phone. Honestly, that makes me a bit of an idiot. It’s a bit of a no-brainer that when I’m in bed with my wife, my 659 Facebook Friends really shouldn’t be there with us. Two’s company. 661 is a crowd.
It gets worse. A couple of days ago, my children were trying to speak to me, and I found myself checking the latest Sky News or my Blogreader on my phone. Three little faces were looking at me, trying to get the attention of their Dad, and he was consumed with a handheld computer. I need to get more disciplined. That’s one of the reasons why Jesus said “when you fast…” The best way to live free from things is to choose to set aside time when those things are not there.
3) Reason #3: I live in a crowded city
A couple of weeks ago, I took an Underground Train from my house in Wimbledon into central London. There were 12 passengers in the train, and 11 of us were tapping on our phones. A dozen humans beings in a hollow tube of metal, all ignoring one another and the enormous potential of God’s travelling coincidences. I love the way that Luke tells us Paul reached the city of Athens for the Gospel in Acts 17:17 - “He reasoned … in the market-place day by day with those who happened to be there”. Luke is writing with his tongue in his cheek, laughing at the idea that anyone God places next to us each day could ever just “happen to be there”, and yet that was precisely the assumption I realised I was making. I want to have a little more space in my life to open my eyes and see what God is doing all around me. Maybe there are people right next to me for a reason.
Don’t get me wrong. I believe that I can “happen” across people through my iPhone as well. Two years ago, I led an old friend to Christ because I commented on her Facebook status and used it as an opener for the Gospel. I’m currently very excited about a long-lost Muslim friend whom I’ve tracked down on Facebook and am beginning to find way to talk about Jesus with. It’s just that I think that there is something profound about Exodus 33:11 when it tells us that “The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend.” Social networking can be all-too superficial. Shane Claiborne said recently in an interview that, “I would say that one of the great dangers is that in choosing an online community, we only have virtual friends and virtual communication without the depth of relationships that marks Jesus, the early Church and Christians throughout history.” I’ve decided that I want to spend more time with people face to face, believing what Exodus says, that it is the normal way that a man speaks with his friend.
4) Reason #4: I hate pride
Last of all, like everyone else, I fight a daily battle with pride. The problem I find is that social media can often turn insecurity and showmanship into a full-time occupation. How many times have you read a Facebook status which is little more than a thinly disguised attempt to impress you and make you want to envy that person’s oh-so-exciting life instead of your own? Perhaps harder to answer, how many times have you posted a similar message yourself? If you struggle with pride and self-centredness, then your 3G little sidekick is only too happy to indulge them for you. I think it’s going to do me good to not care about what anyone thinks of me for a couple of weeks except God, my wife, my children and myself. Maybe it could even become a habit.
Someone said to me recently: “Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth tweets” (Matthew 12:34, kind of). I think he was right, and I want to do something about it.
Like I say, I really love my iPhone, but I’m starting to notice the danger of my indiscipline. It is causing me to drift from being the man I know God has called me to be, and I want to nip these little problems in the bud. I’ll be back in a couple of weeks, able to handle my technology much better than before. For now, in the meantime, I think a two-week iFast will do me good. How about you?
