Greetings to you, friends. I am writing from the Salt Lake City airport en route to Denver where I will be conducting a training for pastors interested in training pastors overseas. While I am here, I’m reflecting on several things, as I have been doing for the last few weeks. You see, my family and I are in the midst of a season where we are pulling back from using media for entertainment purposes in an effort to reflect on healthy and unhealthy habits we’ve formed and realign with what God’s will is for us as we draw near to Him.

Oftentimes, it is so easy for us to get caught up in the busyness of life, putting out fires, jumping from one task to the next, and we lose focus of those things that are most important. So we are spending a month “fasting” from all media entertainment to pull together as a family, have extra time together, attempt to bounce out of the mindless pattern that we slide into and recrystalize our first commitment to the Lord and His ways. For example, it is easy for the boys to gravitate to video games, Allie watches a show on Netflix, Holly sits quietly in her room resting and reading a book (she has cut out media ever since she got sick a year and a half ago), and I am busy working on tasks in front of my computer. We have little interaction. We are in our own worlds.

So we are taking this month to spend more time together as a family, and individually as well as in a group to investigate how we can grow deeper in our walk with God and each other. To be honest, I’ve heard more laughter and watched more interaction between family members than I have for a long time. Personally, I’ve been challenged to spend extra time in prayer and the Word, get my family set up for approaching times I will be away, and be quiet and listen the the voice of the Lord. Admittedly, it is difficult to break out of old patterns, and life still seems to be very full as I’m working most nights till 11 or 12. But periodically setting aside food and such extras as media entertainment to focus on things that are more important has been a good step for us. Allie is coming up with new crafts she’s creating every day, the boys are exploring the property and getting up to speed at school and playing football, and Holly and I are enjoying good talks and prayer times together. We’ve started reading a new book called Sacred Parenting, which reminds us of our divinely established calling to parent our kids to know and follow Christ, and not just do what feels right to us.

I want to make clear that there is nothing “sinful” about media devices, but the issue is balance, and not being controlled by anything. We are to be controlled by the Spirit of God (Gal.5), and various tools can be used well and can be blessings if kept in control (1 Cor. 6:12 – “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.”).

At any rate, perhaps you are encouraged to take some strategic steps to reflect and realign in your own life. These are important times, and my experience is that God uses them to speak to us in a special way. Jesus did this before launching in his earthly ministry (Matt.4), and Paul spent several years in Tarsus listening and learning. May God be honored as we “set apart Christ as Lord” (1 Pet. 3:15), and make sure that blessings such as media never become too important to us.

Pressing on, Eric