There was no cell service at here at Koke’e lookout. Just the beauty of #Kauai.

What’s creating a lot of extra noise in your life that’s robbing you of enjoying the beauty? What in your life is causing chaos and warring against your peace? What seems urgent but isn’t? What’s draining your emotional reserves? What are you spending a lot of time and emotional energy on that really isn’t worth it?

For me, it’s the interwebs. I need to learn to better manage my phone. I’ve implemented some good boundaries but I think I need some more.

I take 24 hours without the internet on Sabbath and that’s always refreshing. I’ve been making sure the internet is not on when I wake up, so it’s not the first thing I check upon rising. This allows me to do my morning uninterrupted. I can tell my brain what to think about and focus on without someone else pulling my attention away. I’m actually writing this now without the internet on. And it’s helpful. I’m trying to get some time at night before bed without it too. Some time to just sit and be still, and be intentionally thankful, although I didn’t do that last night. I also don’t have any e-mail on my phone. I only check my e-mail from my computer. And I’m trying to limit my e-mail checking to twice a day.

It’s almost like having a smart phone in your pocket is giving access to thousands of people to interrupt and steer the course of your day. I wonder if that’s why I feel like I can’t remember things and focus.

I hate admitting this, but it’s true, and I said that the church needs to lead in #vulnerability so here I am. I think we fear being vulnerable because of fear of judgement. But my bet is that if I’m struggling with this, other people are too, and judgement keeps things in the dark, where as vulnerability brings things into the light.

I get addicted to my phone. I’m at the tail end of the #millenial generation. *Ahem* if you’re judging me right now I’ve seen you #boomers with your faces constantly in your smart phone too. 

Right before I left social media in 2018 I posted a video of a former facebook exec talking about how social media is ENGINEERED to keep us #addicted.

The internet is #supernormalstimuli. It creates the feeling of being “valued” especially if it seems urgent and someone “needs” me. I get frustrated sometimes with the lack of interaction my posts get and I end up searching for a serotonin hit of respect on here. Social media is a prime breeding ground for comparison too.

This is why I wasn’t on social media for 2018. And during that year I got to see who my real friends were. The ones that would still reach out to me even though I wasn’t posting content and reminding them I was there. Guys… that list of friends is REAL small and I’m glad for those few friends. People ask me why they didn’t know we were having a kid. It’s because we didn’t interact for a year and if we did you never asked us how we were.

But social is a necessary in support raising, we’ve got to share the story of the amazing things God is doing in our midst. I’ve just got to learn to manage it instead of living at the extremes of full blown phone addict and monastic recluse. I wasn’t happy as monastic recluse in 2018 either. I’ve really been enjoying being intentional and working at the social aspect of my life. I just need to learn to find my contentment and worth and value in Christ alone.

So how about this? I post this, and I post my proverb in the morning. And I catch up on all the social media things, look at likes, comments, messages. And then I turn it off.

I need to figure out how to turn all notifications off. And only let like my wife’s phone calls come through. I think if I turn wifi and data off I can still get text messages and phone calls. Phone calls… it’s funny that we have smart phones, but I rarely ever us it as a phone.

Can anyone relate to this? ^ Or is it just me. What are your smart phone/internet boundaries?