Say what?! Lent is in one week?!!!1!!!!!1!!1! What am I going to sacrifice? What can I possibly give up that will give me all the holiness?
Cue the mass exodus of Catholics (and protestants?) from Facebook!
Every year, thousands of Christians shut off their accounts in an effort to cut out some noise and make room for listening to God. Not a terrible idea, and it kind of touches on of the three pillars of Lent (and Christian life in general): Almsgiving, Prayer, and Fasting. If that’s what you really want to do, go for it, but I have a little proposal for you: what if we moved Facebook from the “fasting” column into the “prayer” column of our little Lenten ledgers?
Introducing, the Facebook Prayer:
One great way of detaching from something and growing in holiness is not to just get rid of everything that isn’t in a Church, but instead to offer everything in your life to him. By praying and being intentional about how we use the things in this world, we can sanctify them. We can teach ourselves to use them correctly and even to serve God in our ordinary lives.
So here’s the idea. Instead of resolving to avoid Facebook, instead force yourself to pray this prayer or a similar prayer every time you log on. You can easily adapt it to other social media platforms if you’d like. Let me know what you think of the idea and share the prayer if you like it. Hope it helps! Til next time…