Why I'm giving up Facebook for April ...

Between February and March of this year, I was away for six weekends in a row, while still working full-time, and keeping my other commitments during the week.  One of the things I learned during those weeks was how valuable my time is.  Not that I didn't know it before ... but when you live on your own, and you only have yourself to take care of, there's not always tons of pressing things that need to be taken care of.  I can put things off until they have to be taken care of, and in the meanwhile, I can while away my time on less pressing matters.

But during those busy weeks, I had to be very intentional with my time, as I didn't have a ton of spare time floating around.  I quickly became good at using my time wisely.  And it felt good to be productive - but then also to be able to take off of the weekends, knowing that there was nothing I had to worry about doing.

Now that my life has returned to less of a 'going' schedule, I've tried to continue being intentional with my time, and I'm more aware of certain 'time-wasters' that are present in my life.  I know that I want to use the time that is given to me wisely - full of purpose and intention.  Sometimes easier said than done though!

Like I mentioned in my last post, I recently read a book called '7:An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess' by Jen Hatmaker.  Basically the premise of the book is that for seven months, she decides to cut back and simplify in seven different areas of life: food, clothes, possessions, media, waste, spending and stress.  A lot of what she said really cut me deep, and since then, I've been mulling and thinking and praying over ways that I can cut back and simplify, because I too, am caught up in this vicious cycle of 'more'.  I am so drawn to the idea of 'less', but it's hard to live with 'less' when we're constantly bombarded by 'more'.

There's a lot of changes that can be made in my life, but one of the simplest ones to make right off the bat was getting rid of Facebook (well, giving up for period ... we'll see what happens in the future).  Now don't get me wrong - I do enjoy Facebook.  I like it for the ease that it allows me to keep in touch with friends - particularly those in other countries.  It's nice to look at their pictures, and to know how they are doing.  But I was just spending WAY TOO MUCH time on it.  Five years ago, I had no idea what Facebook was - now, I check it multiple times a day, sometimes just simply to kill time.  The majority of my 'friends' are people I have zero contact with other than Facebook, so obviously, they're not my deepest relationships.  Yet, I was wasting away my precious time, just so that I could see what they were spending their time doing. 

In short, I'd rather be living my life, than looking at pictures of people living theirs.  There's lots of things I say 'I don't have time for' - which is a lie, because I do, I just don't make time for them.  Case in point: I have a beautiful guitar, sitting in its case, patiently waiting for me to learn how to play it.  Well now's the time! Playing my guitar is one of the things I hope to accomplish during this month of no Facebook.  I also hope to: spend more time reading (the Word, and other books waiting to be read from my large book collection!), be outside (running and biking), writing more (journalling and blogging), and being present with those closest to me (in proximity, but also in heart).

Leading up to signing off of Facebook, I worried about how hard it was going to be.  What if I miss something important?  Yet, the very fact that I was worried about missing it made me know it was the right thing to do.  So far though, it hasn't been that hard - and I don't really miss it yet.  I'm enjoying having more free time in my days.  We'll see what this next month holds, and what else I'm inspired to do! :)

Speaking of Jen Hatmaker, I would strongly encourage you to go and read this blog entry (which is an excerpt taken from 7) written about her feelings on Easter, and why we celebrate it.  Good stuff!