Communication is a good thing....

...and too much of this particular good thing is definitely a bad thing.

I spent all of last semester out of cell service and without a laptop, often going a week or so without reading the news, checking facebook, sending a text, or reading an email.  To those who have done month long facebook fasts, this probably seems like nothing, but I guarantee you, until you've been forced to limit your communication to face to face, you haven't experienced life unplugged.  Part of what I loved so much about the trip was that the focus was almost ENTIRELY on my own thoughts and on my relationship with God, at least for me.

Being in a culture where you can't understand the TV shows, you can't text your buddies, and you can't really even communicate with anyone really stimulates growth. With instant wi-fi connections, a 3G iPhone 4 with tons of games on it, and television I can understand, it's difficult to have the self discipline to pursue God.  When I was away, not only were my eyes opened to seeing God wherever I was, but I also had few distractions to pull me away from Him.

I still had my phone, but there was no service, TV still existed, but I didn't understand it (even some of the stuff in New Zealand and Australia didn't make sense).  None of these things were as big of distractions because it took a lot more effort to A) Find wi-fi, B) figure out how to connect in a weird language C) figure out if it was a reasonable time to call or message anyone, and D) spend fifteen minutes struggling with weak signals and dropped calls.  All I had to do to grow closer to God was send up a prayer, open my Bible, or even just talk with one of the many great christian friends I made on the trip.  I had no option but to share my burdens with my closest friends, and I had every opportunity to be refined spiritually.

This is why I am currently really frustrated with cell service, wi-fi, the internet, facebook, twitter, TV, even my car.  All of these things are individually good in my life; I call my friends and family with my phone, I keep in touch with friends via the internet, I make people laugh (usually) on twitter, and I can use my car to go places.  However, after spending about 5 minutes in a near-berserk state searching my apartment for my phone, I came to the conclusion that these awesome conveniences are taking over my life.  I got frustrated that I almost lost my head because I had gone 5 minutes without checking emails, facebook, texts, phone calls (part of my head-losing was because it had JUST been in my hand).

All of these things are COMPLETELY unnecessary to my life. That's right. COMPLETELY. I would NOT die if I never had any of those luxuries again, I do not NEED any of them, even more frustrating, almost NOTHING I ever said or will say matters. Wall posts don't matter, text messages don't matter, whether or not I watched all six seasons of lost (I did, by the way) DOES NOT MATTER.

Here's why; I am going to die at some point, that is a fact, and the only thing that will matter when that happens is whether or not I chased after God with every ounce of energy.  No matter how much I try to justify it in my mind, 98% of the posts I write, messages I send and calls I make have next to no eternal value.  The fact that these things hold me back from pursuing my Lord really frustrates me at times.  I need to learn to be more disciplined with my use of these things (I feel weird blogging about this topic because blogging is part of the problem...).

I honestly would rather not ever have to have a phone, a computer, a TV or any of these things, no matter how convenient they may be, they really don't do anything positive to bring me closer to God very often.