Live Life Week 1: Fast

For Lent, I am joining up with the Live Life program from World Vision.  Each week has a different challenge.  This week is fasting.

I've never been a fan of using Lent as a diet, so I immediately ruled out the idea of fasting from some sort of food.  But what could I fast from that might bring me closer to God?

My phone.

I am addicted to my phone.  Especially email.  And facebook too.  And twitter and pinterest.  And checking the weather.  And texting my friends.  So yeah, pretty much all of it.

Given that I still want to be employed at the end of the week, I knew that fasting from my phone entirely was not an option.  So I kept it simple:  I will not check my phone while walking places.

No kidding, this just might be the hardest challenge ever.  The amount of stress it is causing me is unreal.  Yet, when I make it at to the end of a 10 minute walk to my next meeting without checking my phone, there is a sense of accomplishment (obviously, not the point of the challenge, but still, it's there).  In my head, I had romantic visions of enjoying the beauty of campus and feeling close to God that way.  Unfortunately, single-digit weather and high winds are not conducive to me feeling the presence of God all around me.  But I do feel more centered and more connected with others.  And that's a really important part of Lent.