Social media breaks can be so beneficial, and if you’ve never done one, I encourage you to incorporate them regularly. I plan to.
At the beginning of the year, I felt God tug on me to do this break. I had done them for a few hours or half a day. I had done it with Facebook, where I deleted the application, but then found myself consumed with YouTube. I knew I needed a complete shut off from all of the voices that were coming at me.
I needed to shut off all of the commentary, opinions, sellers, trends, competitors.
I needed to shut it all off because I was having a hard time hearing the voice of the One who matters.
He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.”
John 10:4-5
I love social media. It’s such an amazing platform. I don’t think I need to tell you all the benefits.
But it can be dangerous, and I think you know that too. Let me just highlight one thing that the Lord is highlighting to me:
While on social media, I create this imaginary person in my brain, and it has become a giant who I try to compete with, keep up with, and gain the approval of. I realize this giant is made up of all of the people I follow on social media. No one person is perfect, right, but the collective of all the amazing women I follow have become this perfect giant. This giant is beautiful, trendy, has the perfect brand, has the perfect house, and is raw and vulnerable at just the right times while still being so put together. This giant is fulfilling her life’s purpose, and in comparison, while I’m over here still questioning mine, I feel so tiny.
You know something funny?
This person, this giant, doesn’t exists!
When I shut off social media, I realized this giant was nonexistent. This perfect person, this perfect life that social media tells us exists, DOESN’T.
I laugh now, but it’s so costly when we allow this giant to defeat us. It costs our mental wellness, and it costs many people their giftings because they give up because they think they can’t compete.
But just like David, when we know who we are, when we know our identity, our purpose, our giftings, we can defeat the giant with what we have in our hands. There’s no need to compete or fear failure because God is on our side.
The giant that rises up through social media isn’t any one person. (We do not fight against flesh and blood.) It is the enemy. (No, social media is not the devil! But he definitely uses it.)
So here’s what I learned when I shut off all the voices and I focused on the One voice, Jesus:
- Jesus is the source of all we need.
- I have a unique purpose. I am needed.
- I can’t save the world, but I am commissioned.
Jesus is the source.
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
John 4:13-14
Jesus is the very thing we’re thirsting for, yet we dig up our own cisterns looking for water in all the wrong places.
God revealed this vision to me during worship based on Jeremiah 2:13: “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”
He showed me a desert and like the movie Holes, there were holes where someone had dug, and God said, my people are digging, looking for water in all the wrong places — in social media, in people, in Netflix binging, in self-help books, in preachers, in music, in hobbies, in busyness, in work, in [FILL IN THE BLANK].
None of these things are evil, but when we make them an idol — a giant — and we begin giving them our time, resources, energy, money, attention… instead of Jesus, we will never be satisfied.
Why do we keep Netflix binging? To get away from our pain and wounds. We don’t want to face it. So we hide and we numb ourselves.
Jesus is the living water. He is the only one who will satisfy us.
I’ve only just tasted again the living water, and I’m not ready to stop. A month away isn’t enough. I want more and I pray I continue running to the right well.
Although I’m back on social media, I’ve realized it must just be a tool and not a well.
I have a unique purpose. I am needed.
Each and every one of us is needed. Social media makes you think someone else is doing what you are passionate about, so you’re not needed, and this is a lie.
I have a unique purpose, and the thing is that God had already revealed this purpose to me for photography specifically, and I lost sight for a moment.
In November, I began feeling anxiety and began questioning my purpose. I started going down a rabbit hole of emotions and lies. God made me realize I have a God-given purpose, and I am needed.
My voice is needed. My testimony is needed. My perspective is needed. And so is yours.
God technically doesn’t need us, but He wants and loves to use us to reach people.
You are so needed.
I can’t save the world, but I am commissioned.
Guys, social media is CRAZY right now! The day I downloaded the app again to get all situated, I watched a few stories and I was like oh my gosh! It feels like every day is doomsday! Hahaha
But when I stopped to examine my actual life, the life right in front of me, it was pretty normal.
Listen, I’m not trying to downplay any thing going on in the world or any injustices because there are A LOT and they are valid and we desperately need change!
BUT what I am saying is social media MAGNIFIES everything and makes it feel HUGE and IMPOSSIBLE. It becomes a giant we feel like we can’t defeat.
Social media makes us feel like it’s our job to save the world — and it’s not.
I have some really great news — Jesus already saved the world! WHOO HOOO!! WE DON’T HAVE TO!
Do you know what I am called to do, and you are too: “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15.
Proverbs 22:36 “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
I am called to be a mom. We are gifted our families, and we need to focus on them.
I know. I know, you clever Christians out there. What about our commission: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Matthew 28:19
Yes! We are also commissioned to go and make disciples, so if your family is saved, I’m sorry to say but you’re not off the hook. Your mission is not complete. Haha.
But do you know how many disciples Jesus had?…. 12.
He had many, thousands, of followers but only 12 disciples.
Jesus focused on a few. He multiplied himself, knowing that they would go and multiply themselves, and then their disciples would go and make disciples who would make disciples who would…. you get the picture.
Discipleship is a one-on-few commission, and it usually is not done on social media… usually.
You know how hard it is to have a conversation via text or social. So much gets lost in translation.
Jesus lived with these 12 men. He did life with them. He ate, slept, and traveled with them.
In person.
Face to face.
Jesus saved the world by making disciples.
And he told us to continue doing the second part: making disciples, not save the world. He already did that.
Final Remarks
Social media is an amazing tool for business and ministry and connection, but it can never replace community.
Community — real people, real life, real, face-to-face connection — is literally crucial for our wellbeing.
Get off social media and focus on your real life in front of you.
I’m telling future myself this too.
Stop imagining this GIANT perfect person or world that doesn’t exist.
Stop questioning your purpose.
Stop trying to solve all the world’s problems and getting so bogged down on how terrible the world is and how we’re all doomed.
JESUS CAME TO DIE ON A CROSS TO SAVE HUMANITY! If we believe in Him, we are SAVED from the world’s troubles.
And the world — people you know — can be saved from it too if you get off social media and actually try talking to some of them in real life. Become their friend. Become their shoulder to cry on.
And if they’re not willing to listen, then MOVE ON to someone who is.
Stop.
Breathe.
Now go and make disciples. Who’s in your inner circle, your family, your friends who you can offer the hope of Jesus? Focus on a few. Focus on one. Focus on your family.
You are okay. I am okay. Social media makes us feel like we’re not, but touch your heart, touch your face, touch your body. You are alive. You are okay. If you have life, it’s because you still have purpose.
And if you’re not okay, if you are going through a really hard thing right now, know that Jesus is the source of all we need. He died for you to have abundant life right now. He died so you can have peace in the midst of the hard seasons. Let’s talk. I’d love to offer some encouragement.
Please, let me know your thoughts in the comments or message me. I’d love to hear from you!
God bless!
