Last week I encouraged you to check out rbc.org as an online source for auditory daily devotionals and other Bible study programs and resources. Why? Because you are very busy people! Technology has tightly wound life, so sometimes it’s wise to fight fire with fire. That is, use technology to help you slow things down, to help you look beyond the temporal to the eternal.
I don’t know how much TV you watch when you do have down time. There’s not much good there. But then, yes there is! There are all kinds of “not bad” stuff on HGTV, on the food channels, on the History channel, on the sports channels. It’s possible to avoid the garbage, and still fill your non-agenda time with some good stuff. I’d like to encourage you to wean yourself from some of this good stuff and feed your soul more. Sometimes, you have to reboot your taste buds.
I’ve been on a fruit and veggie fast of sorts, my own version – a kind of cleanse and detox diet. I do this occasionally. I use my Vita-Mix to create these interesting smoothies made of mostly organic fruits and vegetables. Sometimes I add a special protein powder. My goal is to get lots of nutrition to my cells as efficiently as possible and to avoid any non-nutritive “food” which would get in the way of my body cleansing and detoxing. I drink lots of water and herbal tea. I’m walking two 20-30 minute walks a day. I do some Pilates exercises on my own and participate in a Pilates class with my husband twice a week.
I do all this to gain and maintain a level of health. Since I live with a chronic illness which I’ve had for most of my adulthood, I find these disciplines to be essential. Spiritually, we all have a chronic disease we were born with – our sin nature. In Christ, we are new creations, but we carry that old self as a residue within our spirits. The residual impact is enormous unless we tune ourselves daily to the pitch of God’s Word. Ephesians 4:20-24 instructs us to put off the old self and “that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self which [is] in the likeness of God . . . .”
Therefore, I encourage you to limit (not delete) the time you use to relax through temporal entertainment, no matter how good it is, and increase the time you spend focusing on your love relationship with God. You will learn a better relaxation with both earthly and eternal benefits. Harness the technology you love for a spiritual impact. Use rbc.org and other biblically sound websites to refocus and grow. Open your Bible. Include an older, godly person (note Tuesday’s post) into your life, inviting him/her/them over for dinner, to a family activity, to visit with you while you clean the garage or bake cookies. Listen to this person. Relationship building doesn’t always have to mean adding activities but can mean adding someone to an activity. Include your children when you can.
We belong to God and to each other. It is only sensible that as we grow, whether employing technology or sharing a cup of tea with an older friend, that we grow together.
“Fervently love one another from the heart.” I Peter 1:22b
Journey North Character 
I strongly endorse these suggestions to help each of us to become spiritually stronger. The old saying “garbage in, garbage out” is a true statement that could be expanded to include good things, but not the best, for example “commercials, commercials, commercials in; buy, buy, buy out!” In watching more TV recently with the March Madness, I was shocked with the number of commercials. Those commercials are focused on making us discontent with what we have and encouraging us that we need more, more, and more. I contrast that with my more normal schedule of listening to Christian radio where I am being spiritually fed and then driven to God’s Word to find out more. I strongly recommend WEEC at 100.7 FM or you can listen over the internet!