Let’s Unplug
One of my favorite hobbies is reading. I can spend hours sitting in a squashy armchair and paging through a book. This summer, I have had the privilege to connect with other readers through a summer book group here at St. John’s. Since the start of June, this group has gathered to read and discuss the book Living Joy: 9 Rules to Help You Rediscover and Live Joy Every Day by Chris Stefanick. For me, this has been a wonderful way to encounter and grow with others who are on the journey, and there are a couple of takeaways I’d like to share with you as you continue through the summer season.
Michelle and her sister in Prague, Czech Republic
If you’re like me, summer means vacation time and a time to rest. Rest is one of the rules mentioned in the book. We need rest to function. By rest, I mean a break from activity. And yet, as I look at my schedule for the summer and think about my summer bucket list, I realized I haven’t made time to really rest. I’ve always enjoyed traveling to other countries and observing a more laid-back attitude in regard to work and even tourism. Whether this is a cultural difference from my life here in the United States or just my own projection of a more relaxed attitude, I often marvel at how much more available I become when I’m somewhere other than my home. People watching and conversations with family and friends are easier. And a large part of that availability is that I am making time to rest.
Rest is something that opens us up to God’s movement in our lives. When I spend time to rest, I’m more ready to listen to the ways God might be calling me in a moment. Rest requires me to enter a silent place and let go of trying to get things done. Taking time for rest is important, too, because when we take care of our need for rest, we are better able to serve others when the time comes.
What rest is not, though, is sitting with a phone and scrolling through social media or news feeds. The first time I visited Italy, I was in high school, and I think one of the best parts of that trip wasn’t that I was in another country, but that I didn’t have a cell phone or any access whatsoever to a computer. As crazy as that sounds in today’s world, I find this is a great reminder that it is possible to survive without my cell phone constantly in hand. In order to really rest, we need to put the phone to rest. As Chris Stefanick points out, “There’s a direct correlation between increased screen time during leisure and increased unhappiness” (Living Joy page 52). The National Sleep Foundation published an article in 2023 where they state that the enriched light or blue light of screens decreases peoples’ sleepiness. This is obviously an issue when we are trying to go to bed at night, but I think that our screens also distract us from being present in the moment and from experiencing what is right in front of us.
As I remind myself of these points, I think about how these thoughts connect with the Gospel. Can you imagine how the Good Samaritan would notice the man on the roadside if he had been busy scrolling through his social media feed? Or would he have been able to help the beaten man at all if he did not first care for his own need for rest?
I am challenged this summer to put myself into the action of unplugging from my phone just a little bit more, making time for rest, and letting myself become more available. And I invite you to join me. Though these were probably intended for monitoring children’s screen time, I encourage you to put limits on your app usage and to plan into your day times when you will step away from your phone and just simply rest. It’s ok to take time and sit outside on a patio with an iced drink in hand. Let’s let God open us to the present so that we might encounter Christ in our neighbor.