Facebook Fast

I've never given up anything for Lent before. I mean, I'm not catholic, and all it seemed like for me growing up was a time that the catholic kids in my high school didn't eat meat on Fridays.  I lived it out always, right? Who needs to give up something for 40 days? Not me! Wrong. I mean, I'm not a bad person, I try to live for Jesus -- but there are plenty of things in my life that can improve, that I can get rid of to become more like Christ.

Now that I work at a Lutheran school, I'm bombarded with tradition again. Which is kind of nice after growing up in a non-denominational church which made my roots grow deep, that I can now see the reverence in tradition.  Knowing that Ash Wednesday was coming up at school, and that I'd be "ashed" made me really think about this time of 40 days (technically 47 if you count that's why you get a freebee day).  This brought up a conversation with Raef that started like this:

Me: Hmm, I wonder what I should give up for Lent, I've never done it before.

Raef: I know.

Me: Facebook, yep, that's what you're going to say.

I figured that if I knew what he was going to say (which I was right) that it probably meant that it was soaking up too much time out of my life.  I wouldn't necessarily say I spent hours a day on it, it more just became a habit to check up on my "world" when I woke up, came home, and any lull in my day that I might have. Check the world, feel in-the-know, scour a few pictures that really don't pertain to my life, then check out. 

I'm happy to inform you that in 9 days, I have logged on a total of 2 supervised minutes on the evening of my birthday just to check out birthday wishes, and that has been it. But what has the outcome been?

More time with the Lord? -- not really unfortunately, I need to work on that.  A realization how much I used it to feel connected to the world? -- Oh yes. Another realization that I used to promote myself in ways that I wanted others to praise me to boost my self confidence? -- you betcha. A few extra free moments in my day to find something else to be interested in? -- Oh yes. 

It's crazy to me how much of a part of my "life" it had become. I put life in quotes because, really? My life had been devoted to that? Found meaning in that? Yuck. Don't worry, I'm not condemning facebook at all, I do love seeing friends new babies, and cute quotes about my nephews and I plan on returning after this time is over.  I think it's just a new revelation to me of what an idol it had become and how I need to not let it have such a presence in my life. 

You may wonder (or probably not since a total of 1 person has read my blog since I can't promote it on facebook, again understand this self-worth issue) what have I been filling my time with. Well, I wrote a new blog entry, but also I am discovering the joys of food bloggers. Which is very exciting outcome to Raef since he got homemade waffle eggs benedict (from scratch hollandaise sauce & waffles and a poached eggs!) this morning after reading crumb, and has had a week full of yummy dishes like eggplant parmesan from my favorite food blogger Annie Eats.  Also, I got a new toy for my birthday -- a canon eso d20 camera which may mean that I may have to start practicing my photography on my food -- sounds like a great mesh. 

I guess this whole fasting from facebook as I process my thoughts via blog has and is changing me, just in ways I didn't expect. And, I know that it's supposed to draw me closer to the Lord, but I guess when you are living out things that he's designed you to be passionate about (being in the kitchen) that it's okay to find those changes in your life too.  Ultimately I want to be best Sara that the Lord wants me to be and developing new skills and facing new challenges I guess helps me do that. All in all, changing and becoming more like Christ in the process. Okay, maybe that's a stretch, but I know he desires my best. Wow that was long -- surly no readers made it this far. Maybe I should just stop :)