Ok…this is an incredibly lame post, especially for my first in a while. Today I deleted my Mafia Wars account. This shouldn’t be a big deal, but it is. I’ve been convicted to do this for a while, but couldn’t muster the want to. Mafia Wars is a facebook game that gives you your own mafia and jobs to make money. It’s a game that builds and builds as it goes always finding new items and properties and loot. It is really hard to stop checking it. (The more I write, the more lame I feel. I’m sure you concur). Periodically I realize that I am giving my time to things that have no Kingdom value. It’s not bad to do things for leisure, It is bad to choose leisure over quality time activities such as reading, time with family, time away from the computer. I am no longer bound by this time waster, I’m free.
The past two weeks have been a wild ride. Between sleeping at the hospital, our prayer pals program at church, and my new found (soon to be former) obsession Mafia Wars, I have hit the wall. I need to back up for a few days and gain a little perspective. In order to do that, there are some things that are going to have to go.
#1 Television- before you gasp in disbelief, TV seems to be one of the things that I gravitate to. Think of all the great brain power that is used up on Sportcenter and John & Kate plus 8. What a shame.
#2 Computer time- While I will still be checking my e-mail and posting on here, I will not be checking my blog roll or my daily round the latest sports news and rumors. I especially will not be checking my facebook or participating in Mafia Wars. How can something so meaningless be so consuming.
In the place of these thing I will be:
#1 Reading- I’m getting way behind on my yet to read stack.
#2 Reading books of the bible- In NT Wrights book, “Following Jesus” he says: I am convinced that using a lectionary– reading the Bible in little snippits– is a second-order activity; the primary activity ought to be reading the Bible in large chunks, to get it full flavor and thrust. One book a day. It’s easy to read something that is familiar to you or in nice and neatly wrapped up nuggets of knowledge, but you might miss something if your not absorbing the whole story. I’ll give it a shot.
#3 Love on my kids- they need me far more than my TV or computer do. duh!
I’m not telling you all of this so that I will somehow seem wise and grounded, but more so as a confession to how far away from the narrow I seem to wander. The point is, I only have so much room up in the ol’ gray matter, sometimes I need to do a little spring cleaning.
