Responding To A Challenge

I picked up this photo several years ago during a business seminar. The instructor placed a wide selection of photos on the table and asked us to pick out one that reminded us of our work.

At the time, I was a Software Quality Engineer.  I was paid to break things, as long as I could give a detailed explanation of how I broke it and could recreate the breaking point. This photo of a scribe working on the Torah was indicative of the detail required to accurately describe the steps I need to document in order to duplicate exactly the previous actions.

Such attention to detail takes time. Social media takes up time. My remaining time in this is limited as I grow older.

All that went through my mind when I read a recent challenge to spend some time without social media. I immediately thought of what I would be missing!! There are family members that share photos and happenings on Facebook and Google+ and I thoroughly enjoy those. There are friends that do the same and I keep up with their activities and their growing families. Missionaries!! So many missionaries – the Bassham, Coats, Griffin, Jacobs, and other families our church helps support; Maslin, Buhman, Maria Elena and others I’ve met only through social media – all are on my prayer lists!

My blogs – although they haven’t been daily for several weeks now – are also part of social media. So how would I spend my time without all of these?

I’ll find out in the next two weeks – from June 1 through June 14, I will be abstaining from Facebook (where I post quite a bit and read more), Google+ (where family and friends post a bit more often), Twitter (which I read much more than I post), blogs (both writing and reading) – but, continuing to use texting (not while driving!!) because we’ve come to use it as a family communication tool, just as telephone calls, compliments of my deaf daughter-in-law. It is a good tool!!  I will continue to use e-mail just as I would USPS mail – again, as a communication tool.

What do I hope to gain from this fast from social media? First – I do look upon it as a time of fasting, of doing without these things and replacing them with contemplation, study and the intention to learn more. Will my focus change? I expect it will. And, I will let you know.

See you back here on June 15. In the meantime - let me know what you are reading in the Bible, which I encourage you to use daily.