Well, hello there blogging-world!
This is my first-ever entry, to my first-ever blog and it's a privilege to partner with Nemo and Lifi in our 7 in '11 campaign. It's exciting that there are 3 of us in 3 different countries united with the desire to fight "materialistic and consumer patterns and mindets" (as Nemo so eloquently wrote).
**Before I go any further, just to explain - Nemo is what I call Naomi (who wrote the first post here and came up with the vision of 7 in '11). And Lifi is Lisa-Felicitas (who has yet to post). There are stories attached to these nicknames, but I didn't coin either of them so I'll let them explain, if anyone is interested.**
So Nemo told me about her vision several months ago now and I thought it was fantastic - I knew immediately that I wanted to get involved as I'd been feeling challenged about how sucked into the material world I had become and apathetic to the evident social problems around me. I also felt like so much of my time was being consumed by consumerism and I knew that this needed to change. I loved the concept of "recompense" and thought how cool would it be to symbolically recompense those who have been victims of my materialistic way of life.
By sacrificing 7 different aspects of of the consumerist life that I lead for a month each throughout the course of 2011, maybe I will be able to pray more for and raise awareness of those who suffer so that I can live in material wealth?
I decided that I would, like Nemo, combine my first month with Lent - I didn't go for vegetarianism though - I chose to give up facebook. To some people, this might not sound like much, but for me this was huge! I'd been thinking about doing this for a while - but I remember writing it off fairly quickly as I thought I'd never ever manage. I came up with a heap of excuses for why it would be impossible for me to do (which in itself proved that I really needed to break the habit).
Since I got my iPhone and installed the facebook app over a year ago, my facebook useage had upped dramatically and it almost had become second nature to check it as I woke up in the morning, before I went to bed and when I was feeling bored at work. I was wasting a lot of time that could have been used for much more productive things - facebook really was consuming my life and definitely being a distractor from my relationship with God.
On Shrove Tuesday (8th March), I shut down my facebook account and didn't touch it again until about half an hour or so. The first few days were really quite difficult - I was ashamed at how automatically I reached for my phone to click onto facebook (luckily I'd deleted the app) or how much my thoughts focussed on facebook. I had been on there for almost 6 years and the longest I'd probably ever not been on there was probably for about 2 weeks if I'd ever been abroad and without regular internet access. However, after a week or so life without facebook became a lot more normal - I was only having the odd thought like "I wonder if so and so's wedding pictures are on facebook" etc. By two weeks in, I realised that my morning routine was far more efficient and I was much less distracted at work. I found myself phoning people more and being far less caught up in technology (so much so that I decided I wasn't going to post on this blog until I'd broken the fast).
Anyway, after 46 days of not going onto facebook, something has certainly shifted in my relationship with God - I've certainly found more time to meditate on His word and listen and talk with Him. It has been a good way of de-consuming my mind of the facebook-stalking and hopefully my relationships with friends are richer for it. After returning to facebook this evening, I have to say I don't quite know what all the fuss was about - yes, it's a useful tool to keep up with old friends, particularly those abroad, but it's unhealthy too in the way it makes you constantly think about how others are viewing the you that you have created your profile to be. Also, "stalking", it's not a healthy activity in the real world so it was never going to be an action with pure intentions in the virtual world. I've learnt my lessons and hope that God can forgive me for all the time I have wasted on facebook. I'm not going to give up facebook for good, but I am not going to download the app onto my phone or check it through my work computer. If I want to go on facebook, I'll have to make the effort to switch on the computer at home after work!
So, what comes next (anyone who has been bothered to read this far might be thinking)?? My second "sacrifice" began on April 9th - Nemo and I have partnered together on this one - I am also giving up make-up for a month. So far, it's been a lot harder than the facebook fast. But I'll talk about that more next time...! Thanks for reading if you did.
Love to the blogging world, Katie xxxx
This is my first-ever entry, to my first-ever blog and it's a privilege to partner with Nemo and Lifi in our 7 in '11 campaign. It's exciting that there are 3 of us in 3 different countries united with the desire to fight "materialistic and consumer patterns and mindets" (as Nemo so eloquently wrote).
**Before I go any further, just to explain - Nemo is what I call Naomi (who wrote the first post here and came up with the vision of 7 in '11). And Lifi is Lisa-Felicitas (who has yet to post). There are stories attached to these nicknames, but I didn't coin either of them so I'll let them explain, if anyone is interested.**
So Nemo told me about her vision several months ago now and I thought it was fantastic - I knew immediately that I wanted to get involved as I'd been feeling challenged about how sucked into the material world I had become and apathetic to the evident social problems around me. I also felt like so much of my time was being consumed by consumerism and I knew that this needed to change. I loved the concept of "recompense" and thought how cool would it be to symbolically recompense those who have been victims of my materialistic way of life.
By sacrificing 7 different aspects of of the consumerist life that I lead for a month each throughout the course of 2011, maybe I will be able to pray more for and raise awareness of those who suffer so that I can live in material wealth?
I decided that I would, like Nemo, combine my first month with Lent - I didn't go for vegetarianism though - I chose to give up facebook. To some people, this might not sound like much, but for me this was huge! I'd been thinking about doing this for a while - but I remember writing it off fairly quickly as I thought I'd never ever manage. I came up with a heap of excuses for why it would be impossible for me to do (which in itself proved that I really needed to break the habit).
Since I got my iPhone and installed the facebook app over a year ago, my facebook useage had upped dramatically and it almost had become second nature to check it as I woke up in the morning, before I went to bed and when I was feeling bored at work. I was wasting a lot of time that could have been used for much more productive things - facebook really was consuming my life and definitely being a distractor from my relationship with God.
On Shrove Tuesday (8th March), I shut down my facebook account and didn't touch it again until about half an hour or so. The first few days were really quite difficult - I was ashamed at how automatically I reached for my phone to click onto facebook (luckily I'd deleted the app) or how much my thoughts focussed on facebook. I had been on there for almost 6 years and the longest I'd probably ever not been on there was probably for about 2 weeks if I'd ever been abroad and without regular internet access. However, after a week or so life without facebook became a lot more normal - I was only having the odd thought like "I wonder if so and so's wedding pictures are on facebook" etc. By two weeks in, I realised that my morning routine was far more efficient and I was much less distracted at work. I found myself phoning people more and being far less caught up in technology (so much so that I decided I wasn't going to post on this blog until I'd broken the fast).
Anyway, after 46 days of not going onto facebook, something has certainly shifted in my relationship with God - I've certainly found more time to meditate on His word and listen and talk with Him. It has been a good way of de-consuming my mind of the facebook-stalking and hopefully my relationships with friends are richer for it. After returning to facebook this evening, I have to say I don't quite know what all the fuss was about - yes, it's a useful tool to keep up with old friends, particularly those abroad, but it's unhealthy too in the way it makes you constantly think about how others are viewing the you that you have created your profile to be. Also, "stalking", it's not a healthy activity in the real world so it was never going to be an action with pure intentions in the virtual world. I've learnt my lessons and hope that God can forgive me for all the time I have wasted on facebook. I'm not going to give up facebook for good, but I am not going to download the app onto my phone or check it through my work computer. If I want to go on facebook, I'll have to make the effort to switch on the computer at home after work!
So, what comes next (anyone who has been bothered to read this far might be thinking)?? My second "sacrifice" began on April 9th - Nemo and I have partnered together on this one - I am also giving up make-up for a month. So far, it's been a lot harder than the facebook fast. But I'll talk about that more next time...! Thanks for reading if you did.
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