Social Media Detox Works Wonders

So the heading of this blog is self-explanatory. I have been purging from social media through these 10 and 1/2 months of 2017, basically Facebook and Youtube. I don't really get into Instagram, Snapchat....and whatever others are out there. It's always been my tradition to not get on Facebook during the month of January because that is my time of fasting and consecration for the new year, not exactly a resolution but a devotion. So starting back in January/2017, I did not open my Facebook account to see likes, comments, my timeline, or friends' timelines or anything until February 1, 2017. Even after I got on in Feb., it felt kind of awkward, but in a good way. I mean I literally felt like I had been cleansed from something but just wasn't really sure. So after a few days of scrolling and posting some daily devotionals, doing some encouraging videos, and responding to comments, I learned what that "thing" was that I had been cleansed from.....how inauthentic social media makes ALL OF US!!! For the longest time I always wanted to figure out why I get a slight bit of reluctance to post something, share something, converse with my family, or respond to friends on Facebook, but I would generally ignore that feeling and just keep right on going with my communication. I can give some credit to the month of fasting and just focusing on the Lord, but ever since the Live Streaming of anybody and everybody with their phone posting things in real time that made absolutely no sense in most cases (just attention-seeking), I came to realize that we have gone a bit too far with this "Look At Me, Look At Us" thing. There was a season in my life where I posted videos of church services, private music sessions, singing, outdoor activities with the youth, and so forth because I really thought many of the viewers who watched/listened would enjoy and could gleam from it in some way and I wasn't exactly wrong in my perception. But I did learn a valuable lesson from it that many people might not understand nor want to accept. Someone made a comment to me in person rather than on SM that "you're going to mess around and blow up". Well, we all know what blow up means....get famous, rich, popular....etc. I took that with a lump in my throat almost like I had failed the Lord by giving people what they wanted to hear and see without being assured that God was getting the glory and not me. For example, Smith Wigglesworth was a dynamic preacher who once said that if he ever reached the point to where people was patting him on the back and giving him praise out of the ordinary, and were talking more about him than they were about the Lord who had blessed him to get to where he was, then he wanted the Lord to take him home before he allowed pride to set in and separate him from his true God-given purpose and mission. It was said that after receiving much glorification from people about "him", he died shortly. So thankfully, the Lord heard his prayer and did not allow him to remain on this earth and get consumed by the praises of men. Over the past years during my sermons, teachings, scriptural devotions, singing, and music-playing, I noticed that the sermons, teachings, and scriptures got the fewest views, likes, comments, and NO shares whatsoever. But on the flip side, my singing and playing music would nearly always always make my sermons and teachings look like ants in comparison. The likes and comments would come flooding in about "how beautiful your voice is" and "I love that song" and requests to sing/play this or that song. The problem is not that I disagree with them enjoying the singing and music but the problem is people show their love and worship of the gift more than the Giver. They readily worship the creature more than the Creator. If you give them a devotion with Psalms 23, they don't hunger and thirst after it, which is God's Word. But if you give them a Psalmist with a well-sounding voice who is coming from miles out of town/state into a huge building that seats thousands and put them on stage, the parking lot would be full and the inside would have standing room only. People in both low and high positions crave attention, applause, and approval, and those in middle places are not exempt either. It is this craving that the Lord wanted to purge me from and gut and root out of my system, beginning with social media.....that's just the START but he had to start somewhere. All too often we see people in humble positions and they are the nicest, sweetest, almost cutest folks you ever did want to meet but just as soon as they get a position, a following, a title.....they get hard to deal with and turn down-right ugly on you. Believe it or not, there are so many ugly people in ministries today that they do not even realize how bad of a condition they are in. Why? Because if they were pushed to the limit and had to make a decision about whether or not they are going to serve God for God or be served by people who say they love God, they would undoubtedly choose the latter. People will attach servant to their name when in all actuality, they want to be served (opposite of Christ). The real Christian walk is not a popular one and when Christians are acting and being treated like Celebrities, then that taints the real picture of our faith and it is a very ugly picture. Now back to the originality.....Social Media. Social media has succeeded at creating and maintaining some of the biggest hypocrites, liars, and thieves than any megachurch building could ever hold. I have the time but I don't have the energy to go down the list of all the things that people put online to look bigger, more important, more righteous, more transparent, and any other word that could fit more into it just so their status can go viral, because bigger is better right? If it's ego, then no, bigger is not better.  People reveal the secrets of their hearts by the things they post, like, and share. If a person cannot maintain a holy profile, then you best believe they are not maintaining a holy lifestyle. It's the little foxes that spoil the vineyard and gossip, gluttony, greed and gullibility are just as bad as any other sin. Facebook provides the platform for many people who have it together in some areas but are totally out of sync in others to show the World. Therefore, as I took those days in Feb to review my FB account, I noticed feelings coming back that had left and they are as follows: a) being overly concerned about what others are doing in their life, b) getting angry at certain posts and posting on my timeline hoping the target poster would see it and "know" that I meant it for them, c) feeling like my conversations with my family was way too shallow than what it would be if we were talking in real life or on the phone, d) wanting to deactivate my account several times after deleting about 1/2 dozen friends for profanity and nudity, e) scrolling and rescrolling and rescrolling again only to see the same things and just wasting precious precious time, and f) just getting frustrated over things that I disagree with but can't change. So those are some of the things that put me in check as to why I needed to take a break from SM. I still have my accounts open but I rarely and I mean rarely get on FB. I go days sometimes weeks before even opening the app on my phone and I turned off all notifications about who has gone Live, whose birthday it is, who's going to this Event, who messaged me. The only thing I can't prevent is the friend suggestions and the mutual friend requests, but I usually just do not respond so their requests just hangs out there. I am an introvert to the core and living many days/months without social media is not only healthy and energizing for me mentally and physically but it's rewarding in so many other areas of my life. I don't know if I will ever totally deactivate my accounts like forever but I know for sure I will not go back to using it like it did in years prior (posting as many as 10-15 statuses a day, scrolling, reading, commenting for at least 3 hours in a given session, posting selfies several times a week, etc). No, those days are gone. I am free of what others think about me whether it be positive or negative. I am free of what others are doing or not doing in their lives. I am free of worrying about why this person or that person does not go to church or if they will ever believe and obey the gospel. I am free of seeing automated videos of show-offs in every kind of form (which I quickly unfollow). I am free of competition. I am free of seeing posts that frienemies intend for me to see with a smile on their face but malice in their hearts. The bible teaches us about stirring up strife and emulations (jealousy) in others and we as social media users have all been guilty of doing just that for one reason or another. In a world where just being out of the limelight is so not cool for church or worldly people, I realize my journey of humility will never be "praised". But I'm ok with that because this break has really helped me develop better social skills with people out in the general public, whereas I lacked that before. I notice that I talk and smile differently to people in stores or restaurants. My patience level with people is getting better, although not perfect, but getting better. These are attributes that God wanted to instill in me because although I might appeared to be a Spiritual-Giant to my facebook friends, in real life I would have been pulled apart if I had not been shown my ways. These are the kind of lessons that most church folks run from because it puts an end to the show case and brings one into reality of themselves. And let the truth be told, many Christians probably would not go to church or perform in church if they knew the service was not going to be recorded, streamed live, or publicized in some way about how "good" things went. I don't have to pray for the days where there were no cellphones or cameras during worship because this is how we have service now and the presence, peace, and glory of God is real and felt among his worshipers. I am grateful for coming into the knowledge of what I need to do to better myself and become more like Christ each and every day.