Two Fridays ago, I shared about my first fast, which had nothing to do with food. Click here to read about it.
I also made two main points:
- Fasting is a personal thing, and may take many different forms.
- Fasting can be a way to wean ourselves from things we rely on too heavily, and focus on God instead.
Another type of fast that has become quite popular (and often, necessary) is to fast from social media. Experience has taught me, as yours probably has too, that the perils of this medium are many. Facebook was particularly bad for me – so bad, in fact, that I’m fasting from it…well, permanently. (That’s another story, for, perhaps, another time.) Today, however, I would like to focus on blogging.
Many of my current readers may not be aware of my blogging history, up until this point. I am a fairly new blogger, as you may have guessed, but this is not my first blog. I began in 2017 with a blog entitled Little Moment Meditations. I couldn’t believe my luck, when I started blogging – not because my blog was all that successful, but because I enjoyed it SO much! Finally, I had found a creative outlet that was not only extremely satisfying, but also allowed me to connect and dialogue with other writers.
However, after a few months, things had gotten a little out of balance. The amount of time and energy I was spending on my blog left me with too little of either to spend on my husband and kids. I also noticed that I was reacting emotionally to the likes or dislikes of others concerning my writing. Views on my stats, likes or shares on my posts, and even the exhilaration of receiving inspirations to write became ‘highs’ that I was chasing. Behaving like an addict, my feelings spiked or plummeted sharply depending on how people were reacting to my writing, and on whether I had my next idea or not. I knew this wasn’t healthy. And confusing the issue, for me, was the fact that I partly viewed my blog as a ministry. But was I actually doing it for God? Or was I doing it for myself?
It was the book “Secrets of the Secret Place” by Bob Sorge that enlightened this question for me. In chapter 45, entitled “The Secret of Intimacy First,” he explains that even ministry can be like ‘wine’ when the pleasures of serving God become more important to us than our relationship with Him. Serving God should happen as a natural response to His love. It isn’t supposed to be about chasing the intoxication of His anointing, the accolades of people, or a ‘fix’ to help us feel worthy and valuable. God loves us just as we are, before we’ve done anything for Him. That’s the funny thing about God; the thing we don’t tend to expect. He’s more interested in us, in ourselves, and in relating to us, than He is in our efforts and our work. I am so thankful for that!
In order to let this truth soak into my bones, and to wean myself from the “highs” of blogging, I took an extended break. About 7 months passed before I published another post. By then I wanted a fresh start, with a slightly different feel to my blog, and “The Manitoba Mom Blog” was born. I often visit the topics of God and spirituality, because that’s just a part of who I am. But I’m not doing it to earn favour with God. (I already have that…praise Him!) And because I do have that, the opinions of my readers no longer make or break me. (Although I appreciate all of your support, of course!)
Since most of my readers are also bloggers, I would love to hear your perspective on this topic. Have you ever taken an intentional break from blogging? And why?
And if you would like a more thorough explanation of the Biblical basis for fasting than what I provide here, and some of the reasons/purposes behind it, a pastor at my church has been teaching an excellent series of sermons on the topic. Here is the link to listen to them:
https://mysouthland.com/messages#Prayer_and_Fasting/Prayer_and_Fasting
Warm wishes,
Lisa