A good year of God

Earlier I briefly wrote about life being like The Last Samurai and the near extinction of life without modern-day technology. Mom and Dad did some research and, yes, there is a good chance I will not have internet or a cell phone where I’m going.

No internet? No cell phone? How will you survive? How can you be moving to one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world and have no internet access and no cell phone service?

Well, let’s just say it’s like living in the middle of a national park…in Alaska. I mean, if this is the case, everyone else in my tiny town has managed to live life without these “necessities.”

Initially, I panicked (still a little panicked). What am I going to do for a year without internet? How will I update my blog and check my Facebook?!

But what would life be like without a cell phone or internet service for a year?

What if the only book I have to read is my Bible? What if I take Psalm 119:11 to heart for an entire year?

What if the only person I can talk to is God? What if I take 1 Thessalonians 5:17 literally?

I feel like the only time my internet and cell phone don’t work is when:

1. our apartment internet unexpectedly shuts down
2. I’m driving through the hills of PV
3. I’m at church camp
4. I’m out of the country on vacation

But those last, what, maybe a week or two? But I will have a whole year to get away from it all, to be released from the electronic leash. I’ll have to go to God first before I can Google my way out of things. I’ll have to go to God first before I put up an emo Facebook status. I’ll have to go to God first before I can text my best friends for advice. Without the ability to check my emails and Facebook and text message inbox every twenty seconds, maybe I’ll take the time to sit before the throne of a holy God and be still.

I used to do my quiet time during my commute to work in the morning because I didn’t have time in the morning before I left for work. But I remember getting up at 5:30 everyday sophomore year of college to do my quiet times knowing I didn’t have class until 2:00 pm. I’ve never walked closer to God than that year of college when I gave God time.

But I give God my time on Sunday morning; I go to church for 2 hours. I’ll admit that I check my watch, my phone during church, during my quiet time. I’ve got places to go, people to meet. I’m a busy person, a wanted woman (haha). Am I really giving God time on Sunday mornings? Do I not hear God’s voice as clearly as I used to because I don’t take the time to wait for an answer?

Everything is so rushed, so hurried in today’s society. Having empty space on the calendar is a bad thing. I know I don’t give God time. I rush through my prayers and my quiet times so I can get on to more important things like answering emails and Facebook stalking. In a generation of INSTANT and MICROWAVE and GOOGLE, I believe patience and waiting have become archaic ideas and practices.

Perhaps it will be a good year. A good year of solitude. A good year of God.