Intermittent Fasting for the Soul
Intermittent fasting is all the rage these days in the nutrition and fitness world. I’ve honestly never tried it, but I have researched the science behind it and totally see how it works. Believe it or not, the blog this week is not about diet and exercise, but it is about what we consume and practice. What if we took the concepts of intermittent fasting and applied them to our media consumption? Would it have similar effects on our spiritual health?
Take this challenge. Go to your phone settings and assess your screen time usage. How much time do you spend on social media, watching YouTube, playing games, and generally wasting time? As a willing participant, I viewed my stats. Just yesterday I spent 3h19min on social media apps. That is ridiculous! Let’s be honest, I could have spent a bulk of that time doing more meaningful things.
Don’t get me wrong – I am not anti-social media. These conversations can quickly prompt overcorrections and lead us to a legalistic path that assumes we are more spiritual if we throw the TV out in the trash and cancel all social media accounts. Personally, I do not draw hard lines between sacred and secular. I do, however, think we need to honestly audit our time spent consuming selfish or even sinful thoughts and compare it to the time we spend feeding our souls.
What if we embraced an intermittent fasting concept? Let’s commit to looking at Scripture before our screen each day. Let’s listen to worship music or a biblical podcast that feeds our minds with righteous thoughts. Winning the war in the mind will lead to more faithful conduct. This principle is taught by Paul in Philippians 4:8-9. Just think about it.
