Freedom

Congratulations! If you are doing the digital fast, you are over halfway done! What has changed for you in the last two and a half weeks? Have you noticed your desires shifting? Have you become aware of the times you do reach for your phone and stop to ask yourself, “Do I really need to do this right now?” Has God spoken to you during this time?

One thing I have noticed is that some of the things that I would be drawn to before now have little to no appeal. A show I might have been interested in watching previously makes me lose interest after a few minutes. An email from somewhere I had previously subscribed to shows up, and as I start reading it, I realize I am not as interested as I used to be. So I go to the bottom of the email and hit unsubscribe. (Before the fast, I would wake up to about 15-20 emails every morning from services I thought I needed. It is now down to around three!)

On my journey of spiritual formation, I encountered an idea known as disordered attachments. Attachments are things we feel we cannot live without. They become disordered when they take priority, even above God. These are unhealthy desires or habits that prevent us from living authentically and connecting with God. A fast can help reveal disordered attachments in our lives. Once we identify these unhealthy desires, we can start to address them in prayer with the Father, Son, and Spirit to get to the root of why they are so important to us, to begin to understand the harm they may be causing us, and then release them to the Father. 

And when we release them and move toward ordered attachments, we find freedom. A freedom of heart and mind. A freedom in knowing who we are, our gifts and our limitations, and who we are in Christ. 

As we spend these final 10 days or so in the digital fast, may we become more aware of our disordered attachments so that we may become even more aware of who God is and His love for us. And may the space you’ve cleared out by releasing these disordered attachments be filled with the power and the presence of God.