Unpluggedनमूना

We should take a few minutes to think through the allure of our phones. It seems like a vicious cycle. We start using an app because we’re curious, or because we enjoy that particular app. Over time the focus can change – and it’s no longer about personal enjoyment. In fact, in some ways, we stop controlling the app and the app begins controlling us. This can be especially true on social media. Some people use social media to portray a version of life they don’t truly live. The “stress to impress” becomes a dangerous motivator and we can find ourselves trapped!

We all want to matter. We all want our lives to count. But with technology, we can go about it in the wrong way. All the posing and posturing and performing may help us gain friends, win the award, and be the one who saves the day. But in terms of connecting with Jesus and encouraging the stuff of righteousness? It won’t even get us to step one.

Jesus said that all our boasting may get us some things, but it won’t get us the one thing we truly seek, which is the soul-filling love of our Father, the sense that we’re accepted as we are. “Everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world” (1 John 2:16 NIV).

In the book of Matthew, we are told not to be like the hypocrites, who love to pray to be seen by people, who love to flaunt their spirituality and their superiority, who love to devote themselves to trying to impress. No, instead, Jesus says we are to work on the inner self, spending our energies developing things such as a gentle spirit, which, according to 1 Peter 3:4, is “of great worth in God’s sight” (NIV).

How would your life be different if you ditched social media altogether — the desire to impress — and worked toward a quiet, gentle spirit instead. What if once a month you found a place or time to get away for an entire day with nothing on your schedule and nobody to impress? No phone, no homework, no stress. Just you and some friends — maybe family too — doing things you love without screens or distractions! Use some time today to schedule that over these next few weeks.