Join us this Lent.
Three practices. Forty-six days.
Why a Digital Fast?
By: Pastor Tim Spanburg
I remember it like it was yesterday. I remember the very stoplight where I it happened.
Earlier that day, my boss at the time commented on how he realized his relationship with his phone had become strange and unhelpful. It hit him when he caught himself checking his email at a stoplight. I remembered thinking to myself — That’s both dangerous...and ridiculous! Who in their right mind would put their life in danger just to check their email?
Me.
Without thinking about it, or remembering the conversation earlier that day, I found myself checking my email at a stoplight. That was the moment I realized my phone had a power over me that, without great intentionality, could overwhelm me in strange and unhealthy ways.
My journey is why we are inviting you to consider three practices over the Lenten season together. These practices are tailored to intentionally increase your joy during Lent—to move away from practices that lower our joy (i.e., checking our emails at stoplights) and toward practices that increase our joy. As you consider this invitation, here is why we chose these practices:
Practice 1: Pray First
What we do first each day has a major impact on our joy levels for the day. If we start our day in the digital landscape — scrolling social media, reading the news, or seeing how people have responded to our posts — our day starts in a very different place than if we begin with the Father.
For Lent, we want to invite you to consider putting your phone in another room overnight (which might mean purchasing an alarm clock — go for it! They’re cheap!). Instead of starting your day with your phone, start it with your God.
Read a Psalm. Read a few verses in your favorite New Testament letter. Then direct your gaze toward God and start your day with Him. This could be as simple as two minutes or as long as twenty (or longer!). The point isn’t the length, but the rhythm—making prayer the first thing you do each day.
Practice 2: Make Your Smartphone a Dumbphone
One of the most important books written on technology and how we use it is called Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman. In that book, he invites us to ask two questions of technology before we use it:
What is the problem this new technology solves?
What new problems do we create by solving this problem?
If you really want to go all in for Lent, ask those questions of our smartphones — but I am not asking you to do that. Rather, those questions reveal how we often jump into new technologies without critically thinking about how they are impacting us.
So, we want to invite you, for 46 days, to make your smartphone a dumbphone.
I know what you’re thinking — what do you mean… make my smartphone a dumbphone?! Simple. Take everything off your phone that isn’t what a phone is typically used for (i.e., phone calls and texts). If that seems crazy, include any apps that are purely utilitarian but not entertaining (think Google Maps, certain fitness apps — things you don’t spend much time on because they aren’t addicting). The point of this exercise is to notice all the things that cause us to mindlessly spend time on our phones.
Things like email, social media apps, streaming apps like Netflix or Hulu, internet apps (go old school—only use the internet on your laptop for 46 days!), and shopping apps like Amazon. For 46 days, use your computer, not your phone, for these things.
Why?
NOT to have a dumbphone forever, but to take a break from the addictive patterns these apps create in us (which is intentional by their designers) and to allow ourselves to consider Postman’s questions: Are these apps helping me solve problems? Are they creating new problems in me that aren’t bringing me more joy?
Creating some distance from these apps creates space for us to make more intentional choices about what we will— and will not — use our phones for.
Practice 3: Gratitude Last
At the end of the day, rather than pulling out our phones as we fall asleep, we want to invite you to consider spending your final moments before rest in gratitude. Studies show that when our brains enter a state of gratitude for five minutes, three times a day, our joy levels increase significantly.
End your day in that place. Think back through your day and notice how God met you, provided for you, or gifted you an experience — and thank Him for that person, moment, or experience. Sit in that place of gratitude, then go to rest, confident that God desires to be just as kind to you tomorrow as He was today.
There you have it.
Pray first. Make your smartphone a dumbphone. Gratitude last.
We hope you’ll take up our invitation, but if you’re not ready, we understand. Or maybe you want to try just one practice — great. Start where you can. The point of this journey isn’t the three practices themselves, but growing in joy and life with God. That’s the goal. We believe these practices can help, but the focus isn’t on them — it’s on becoming fully alive in God’s Kingdom. We want to do everything we can to help you on that journey, and we hope you’ll take up the invitation.
Grace & peace,
Pastor Tim