As I'm closing out my media fast I thought I would jot down some reflections on the past 40 days. First and foremost, I loved it!!! It wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be, which is great, because that was half the point; to find out if I was consumed by all the media around me. It was no trouble at all to stay off social media. I didn't miss paging through other people's posts, but there were a few times I wanted to post things. I have one TV show that I watch regularly and I missed it, but it wasn't a big deal. The worst part was not having the late night iPad/TV watching with my wife after the kids go to bed. We normally sit and watch an episode of something with a bag of popcorn several nights a week. I really did not miss watching TV or movies at all. I just missed the down time sitting on the couch with my wife. On the flip side there were several nights that we would just sit and talk during that time that would normally be TV time.
The other half of the objective was to spend more time with God. That was great too; mostly. I spent a lot more time in the Word, mostly putting my blog posts together or reading a chapter of the bible during the time I would normally be scrolling through Twitter. I say 'mostly' because I really wish I had taken more time to pray. I don't really waste as much time on media as I had thought. Dropping it out only opened a little time for me. I'm sure I could, and still can, make more time for prayer, and I need to. The extra time in the Word has been great and I plan to continue that as best I can, but I need to make more time for prayer. I did a much better job during this 40 days of having short prayers throughout the day, but I miss the days when I would spend 20 minutes or more in prayer on a consistent basis. That needs to find a way to come back!
All in all I really enjoyed this time and look forward to a better balance of media and time with God. I'll put some media back in, but will certainly keep more time with God in each day as well.
I recommend this 40 day fast to anyone. Even if you have no interest in spending time with God, just try knocking out media and see how much you love the extra time you have for things that are so much more important than entertainment.
Until next time...
