Our brain was not wired to process the amount of information we throw at it on a daily basis.
The shows we watch.
The news we tune into.
The podcasts we listen to.
The social media we scroll through.
The trends and news and health warnings and even the good stuff that is aimed at growing us spiritually.
It is information over load.
Pastor Steven Furtick of Elevation Church said it well in his sermon “why are we anxious?”
“There is no way that we can’t take it all in and still have room for the peace of God,” he said. “You’re praying for the peace of God – God doesn’t have anywhere to put it. Your mind is too full. You were not designed to have the entirety of the conversation of the whole human race buzzing on your back pocket on your butt bone. Just walking around like snipers. ‘What did they say?’ ‘Where did they go on vacation?’ ‘What about that press conference?’ It was not supposed to be this way. Of course we’re freaking out. Of course we’re zombies. Of course we’re numbing ourselves and drinking and smoking and popping. Of course we can’t stop it. The devil’s got a shock collar on our back pocket and we don’t even know it.”
We are constantly shackled to the world through our devices. Our minds are constantly filled with digital noise.
We are listening to a new song or reading a new post or receiving notifications about who is presenting something “live” on one of our social media outlets. And while they are live we are dead inside because we can’t even hear ourselves think.
We have a constant buzz of knowledge and information in our heads. So much we can’t hear our voice, our spouse’s voice, children’s voices or more importantly God’s.
How can God speak to us if we never shut the voices off?
Notice I say “we” and “us.”
How can God speak to ME if I never put the phone down and stop searching for help and validation in social media instead of His Word?
Ouch. That one hurt.
Because it’s true.
Because it’s what I heard in my spirit today when I tried to quiet the voices and just listen. I tried to listen to what God was saying and it was hard.
It was hard to hear His voice beyond the anxiety and the doubts and the worry and the efforts to fix it all in the twenty minutes between when I woke up and my toddler woke up. Not too mention I tried to force myself to listen and we all know what happens when you do that: you start making grocery lists in your head and wondering how cellophane works.
But then I did have a thought, that felt a lot like a reminder to my soul; a reminder that we can’t place ourself in chaos and expect to feel peace.
There are times chaos whirls around us, out of our control. Often, though, we are in control of what sweeps us up into its current. We can step back, close computers, uninstall apps, shut off devices and quiet all the voices except His.
We can decide that less is what we need.
Less people telling us how to be a better us.
Less “motivational” posts that make us feel we’re getting this Christianity thing all wrong.
Less busyness.
Less voices whispering we need to do more.
Less of us telling ourselves we need to be everything to everyone
Less expectations.
Less running toward what we think will make us happy.
Less determination that if we just have more of what we don’t have we’ll have all we need to be happy.
Is social media all evil and no good?
Of course not.
There is good mixed in the bad but less of it can mean more of what matters to us.
More of him.
More of her.
More of them.
More laughter with them.
More of your voice, not “theirs”.
More of hearing your soul.
More peace.
More Him.
Read More →
Embracing the role of motherhood
For 13 years when someone asked what I did for a living I said “I’m a newspaper reporter”. It made me feel like I had accomplished something in life. Four years of college, a degree, and a job in what I went to college for. I was a contributing member of society. I was a public servant, informing the community. I was important, at least in some small way, or so I thought.
Then I burned out on the news and, really, on people. I left newspapers, convinced my love for photography would translate into a successful business. Then I could say “I’m a photographer”
I left the paper for two reasons: to be home with my son and to start a photography business. When the photography business never happened I was left with . . .being a mom because in my mind I wasn’t a photographer if I didn’t have a business, which, of course, I now know isn’t true.
Just a mom.
Just.
A.
Mom.
I couldn’t imagine having to answer the question of what I did for a living with “I’m a mom. JUST a mom.”
As a kid, I’d never imagined myself a mom. I’d always pictured myself traveling the world as a writer and photojournalist.
My mom was “just a mom” and I had never looked down on her for that so I had no idea why being “just a mom” filled me with a feeling of personal failure.
Why was it bothering me so much to be “just a mom”?
I think the society we live in today, especially in the United States, tells moms that being a mom isn’t enough. The idea that being a mom is the best job a woman can have is very popular but only if a person can say “I’m a writer but I’m also a mom and that’s the most important job I have.”
If a woman can only say “I’m a mom. It’s all I do” I believe many look at her as if to say “is that really all you do?”
Last year I sought out a natural doctor for some health issues I’ve been having. She asked me what I did in my spare time. I started to tell her I was a mom so I don’t have much spare tome and she interrupted me “but what do you do for you?” I photograph my children in what I feel is an artistic way and told her but she shook her head in disapproval and I immediately felt that shame at being “just a mom”. Here was another woman, maybe even a mother herself, reminding me that I needed to be more than a mom. I needed to do something more with my life. I couldn’t just be a mom.
Other women shame each other into believing they need to be more than a mom but I don’t believe God desires there to be any shame felt when a woman’s sole job, so to speak, is “just being a mom.”
I’m working on accepting this title of mom, which I know sounds weird since I’ve been one for almost a decade.
I’m practicing saying “I’m a mom,” and not needing to add after it “And I am also a photographer.”
For me, photography isn’t a job, and I don’t want it to be. It’s part of who I am in the same way being “just a mom” is part of who I am and who I always will be.