the church where i work, we’re gifted with a passionate and driven high school pastor. he’s a great teacher (when he has the opportunity) on the weekend services, additionally he is generally just an amazing leader. his name is ben snyder, and he recently challenged his high school students with the same challenge (different dates) i am about to issue to all of you who read this blog, and all of you who are finding this site from facebook or myspace.

how much are we missing in our lives, in our families lives, our friends lives, our spiritual lives… by paying ridiculous amounts of attention to our plethora of electronic devices? we live in the “noisiest” time in the history of the world. we have so many things competing for our attention, it’s no wonder that we have trouble relating to people, and to our faith.

i’m not going to sit here and tell you that these things are “evil,” because i honestly don’t believe that. however, i do believe in the value of disconnecting, or “fasting” every once in a while. if for no other reason than to prepare for an inevitable giant e.m.p. (electromagnetic pulse) going off someday that destroys all the worlds electronic devices, thus thrusting tom cruise into becoming the leader of the planet alongside xenu, the alien founder of scientology that populated the earth through volcanoes.

so anyway — for seven days, beginning monday, march seventeenth and continuing through sunday, march twenty-third i will be unplugging, and i hope many, many people join me.

what does this mean? no television. no email. no blogging (this includes guest blogs). no twittering (this is the most painful). no facebook. no myspace. no flickr. no youtube. no ipod. no internet. no computer. no texting. no phone calls.

one week to focus all of my time and energy on my faith, my family, my friends. seven days of listening, reading, growing.

now, the rules are this; obviously we all have responsibilities, be it work, school, whatever… that require you to use a phone and various forms of communication. this challenge applies to every thing OUTSIDE of your work/school day. this will look different for everyone. for example, i have a job where i sort of need to be on call, so if something happens and my boss calls me at eight pm on a tuesday night, i’m still going to answer it. however, the first thing i’ll ask is if it can be put off till the next regular working day. so you’re just going to have to be diligent on your own… nobody is going to babysit you here.

everyone get it?

that high school pastor i was talking about, put together a video about the high school challenge, so the dates are different, but the idea is the same. watch this two minute video below to see what i believe this to be so important. he can say it much better than i can.

so, who’s coming with me? don’t make me do this alone! leave a comment below, let’s do this together!