Week 31: The Weight of Freedom
Weekly Digital Detox Reflections
Peace be with you, kind readers. Welcome to The Endeavor, a Christian publication about life's journey in Christ. We are now 31 weeks into a 52-week project of digital detox reflections. I do my best to adhere to a routine of digital minimalism. Here is the routine. Every morning, I complete my mourning routine of prayer, breakfast, reading, and more prayer without my phone. Every Tuesday, I do my job using my phone as little as possible. My job requires long periods of driving, so on Tuesdays, I drive without streaming music, podcasts, or audiobooks. I work and drive in silence. Every day, when I get home from work, I put my phone in a designated place and treat it like a landline. It stays in its place until I need to charge it for the night. We do not have tablets of any kind, we’re not a gamers, and we don’t have any other “smart” devices. Our refrigerator, washer and dryer, and toilets are not “smart,” (yes, smart toilets are a thing) so when we follow this routine, we are pretty free from digital distractions. I use that free time to reflect on life, past, present, and future, and then share those reflections with readers weekly. If you enjoy these reflections, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Progress Report
My family is doing well, slowly progressing towards digital minimalism. When everything started, it was just me who went forward with the routine. My wife joined in with her own routine of digital restrictions, and our combined efforts have made a massive difference in how we spend time together as a family. Our children are so young that they have no choice but to live as we live, and it does my heart good to know that we are setting an excellent example. The most significant point of progress recently has been cutting way down on TV time. Many days now, when I get home from work, I walk in, the TV is off and my wife’s phone is far away. The house is a mess because my two-year-old daughter has been busy getting into everything she can, but to me, it’s a beautiful mess. I would rather see my daughter playfully destroying the living room than see her staring at the TV like a little zombie. Don’t get me wrong, we are not perfect in this regard. The TV does come on and sometimes stays on too long, but this seems to be happening far less often, and that is something for which I am thankful. Our free time at home actually feels free. This leads to where my thoughts have been.
Where My Thoughts Have Been
As many of you know, after years of struggling and wrestling, I recently decided to pursue Catholicism. The feeling of freedom that has followed this decision has been profound. The funny thing is that almost as soon as this significant decision had been made, God, in His perfect timing, decided to lay another major decision on my shoulders. As I began thinking through what to do, I started to stress and decided to take the issue to God in prayer. That’s a great thing and would have been helpful, but I was praying the wrong prayer. I was asking for a sign. I was asking for God to walk on water and come tell me what to do when I should have been asking for faith the size of a mustard seed, knowing He will be with me so long as I do what I know to be His will, which is to do all for His glory. I recently listened to a podcast in which Fr. Mike Schmitz described asking or looking for signs as a trap too many Christians fall into. I'm paraphrasing a bit, but he said we ask or look for signs because we want to be told what to do, not because the will of God is the primary concern. We want to be told what to do because that relieves us of the burden of deciding. This may sound odd, but hearing this brought me joy. Meditating on God's love and the true, perfect freedom He gives us to make choices should fill our hearts with gladness.
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.”
Romans 8:1-5 KJV
Christ has given us the freedom to walk after the spirit and the flesh. He came and proclaimed the Kingdom of God is at hand. The Gospel is the good news of Christ’s triumph over sin, death, and all evil, demonic powers (not such good news or them). Understand that. The gospel is something that has happened and is happening to us. We can’t do anything about it but can choose how to respond. We can accept this as good news, recognize Christ as King, and conform to His will. We can scoff at this news and participate in the already lost efforts of evil. Or, we can choose to be lukewarm about all of it and serve God half-heartedly, although you should know that won’t end well (Revelation 3:16). Take a moment and reflect on the profundity of this freedom. The God who created the Universe and sought to redeem it after we freely ruined it is now, once again, giving you the freedom to love or reject Him. He can do anything. He could force us to love Him, but this, of course, would not be true love. True love always allows for the possibility of rejection, making it altogether holy and beautiful when freely given and received. We should not forget, however, the weight of freedom, holy and beautiful as it may be.
Freedom means having to make easy and tough decisions. Freedom means you are free to choose right and wrong and that you will freely endure the consequences of right and wrong. Freedom means you are at the mercy of the freedom others take in their actions for or against you. Freedom means suffering for good or for evil. The apostles knew this and have given us their example, but the ultimate example is our Lord, Jesus Christ.
“For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.”
2 Corinthians 8:9 KJV
Jesus, God of the universe, used His freedom to become poor, bore the guilt that belonged to us, and bled the blood we ought to have bled so that we may be seen as righteous as He is in the eyes of the Father. He freely suffered the agony of our sins, was scourged, crowned with thorns, made to carry His cross, and was crucified so that He may once and for all defeat death and usher in His kingdom in which we are free and able to become like Him. Christ carried the weight of freedom for you, whom He dearly loves. He is still here, willing to bear your burdens should you find the freedom to trust Him.
I pray you find some free time soon and can reflect on the freedom He gives and that it brings you joy and peace.
Thank you for reading this week’s reflections. Have a great day, week, and weekend. Go in peace, God Bless!
Benediction
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us, sinners.
“The LORD bless thee, and keep thee: The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.”
Numbers 6:24-26 KJV
Thank you for reading! Do your best to disconnect from the artificial and connect with others.
And as always,
Keep thy head cool and thine eyes true.
Howard Pyle, Men of Iron
Scripture of the Week
“Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.”
1 Peter 2:1-5 KJV
Word of the Week
(noun) Abandon- careless disregard for consequences.
Perusing Jesus with abandon means looking past uncertain circumstances, looking instead at the certainty of who He is.
Why abandon? It’s just a good word.
Music of the Week
By My Side- The Porter’s Gate, Emoni Wilkins
It sounds counter intuitive but the more your will aligns to God's will the freer we'll feel. I heard somewhere that the only thing that's really ours is free will, hence giving it back to God is a true gift. Good stuff, as usual.
I really enjoyed this reflection, Daniel. I love your modeling the digital detox for your family, and for all of us. I smile that you're coming home to the Church our Lord founded. I (cradle Catholic) have Protestant friends and drifted in that direction for years until my reversion. Now I see much more clearly the depth of the riches and truth Christ's Church offers us.
I loved the song link you included too. I never heard her or that song before - what a voice and what a message. Bonus: YouTube then took me to something I hadn't heard in ages, the segment of "Come and Go With Me to That Land" that you hear in my favorite X-Files episode, "The Unnatural":
https://youtu.be/-hek4d0P9_4?si=4TliplIyz0hYMu84
If you haven't seen that episode, do look it up! A retired investigator tells Mulder how he formed a friendship with an alien who was hiding as a baseball player in the Negro Leagues. Terrific writing, great characters. Or are you too young to remember The X-Files? 😉
Thank you for sharing your meditations, and God bless you!