Filling Cracks

Ah, pothole season! Sometimes it takes a harsh winter on our roads for us to realize where those cracks are as they become exposed, opened wider, and in need of repair. I feel like I've been on journey these past 18 months as well, a winter of my own, that has seen me through some personal challenges. As I feel like I'm beginning to exit this winter, I too am surveying some cracks that were revealed, and in need of Repair.

For the past several days something has been placed on my heart that I want to address; social networking. While the topic of balancing and managing time spent in an electronic environment is not new, and almost exhaustively written about, I thought I'd share a bit of my own ponderings as I think my application is a bit different. So how is it different?

It's about cracks, fractures in my time each day.

I could talk about limiting time, the benefits of it, the obstruction it can cause, the amount of noise there is out there; but I want to focus on the tiny cracks in my time. The tiny cracks that find me on an elevator, in line at the store, waiting at a red light, waiting for my food to arrive at a restaurant, waiting on a friend, and perhaps even waiting (sitting?) in the bathroom!

These cracks are very often spent thumbing through my phone on some/most social networking sites.

I do like to set aside some quiet time each night to spend reflecting on Truth, my Creator, and His Word. However, the cracks in my day (and there are many) are simply filled with noise when they could be filled with Him. 

I sit here and try to imagine a day where I did things the other way around. Perhaps I take some time in the evening to relax, flip through some social sites, news, catch up with some people, share a few laughs, tears, and pictures. Yet that same day found me in the elevator scrolling through a Gospel. It found me waiting in line catching a few verses from Paul that could change my perspective. It found me at the restaurant table reading through some prophecies. It found me at a red light singing a psalm to myself in the car ...

What a different day that would be!

I certainly am not suggesting to replace quality study time with slivers of time, I'm just suggesting that perhaps those slivers of time, filled with Him, would glue my entire day together in love, peace, and joy.

Social networking isn't evil; it's quite relevant to how we communicate today. While apps may make it easy for me to flip through Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, IG, there are also apps to make it easy to dive into His Word, prayer, and reflection. So I decided to make a minor tweak to my phone ... and one in my head!

1. Move social sites off my home screen
2. Remember why I moved social sites off my home screen

So I sat down outside for a few minutes with a couple of my children, and grabbed my phone ... my thumb didn't find Facebook, it found Luke. It also found me having a quick discussion. As I read the passage aloud, my son who wandered next to me asked and reflected with me. My youngest daughter just looked at my phone screen, and watched and listened as I read ...

Filling in the cracks ...

His,
~Matthew