Monday, March 07, 2005

The Lure of E-Mail

I spoke on Sunday about internet pornography. Thankfully that's not a temptation to me. My biggest temptation is checking my e-mail! I office primarily out of my home (less distracting) and my computer is in our dining room (very central to our home). The computer screen seems to always be calling out to me.

There's something about mail that is alluring. As a kid, I always loved checking the mailbox. Back then, there wasn't much junk mail. If you got a letter it was usually hand written by someone you knew like grandma or someone. So I always had a sense of expectancy going to the maibox.

I feel that way when I open my yahoo account. I suppose it's because I'm a pastor that makes it exciting. I probably send and receive about 60 emails a day (total). I'm in contact with a lot of people and I'm often hearing good news. God is up to good things in a lot of lives. Other emails come from leaders with questions about their ministry. Sometimes I get emails from people across the country who read an article or sermon that I wrote and they want to thank me. Those are fun!

Knowing that there might be a mailbox with pressing questions or good news makes it hard for me to not check it frequently. It's addicting. I almost "need" to get that continual flow of information to be content. That's a little scary. So I started a new discipline. On Fridays (my new day off), I'm not going to check my email at all for 24 hours. I guess you can say it's a fast. I'm amazed how calming it is for me to stop the information flow. It's like not drinking coffee for a day. You don't get the buzz and your thoughts aren't bouncing around your head as fast as usual.

I share this because maybe you can ask yourself...What is it that I need to have flowing into me to be content? And ...What is it that God might be asking me to fast?

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