Simplicity, solitude, submission and service.

2019 the average time spent on Social Networking was 144 minutes per day.

This is an increase of an hour a day over 2012.

Every second, 11 people use social media for the first time.

16-24-year-olds spend a median of 3 hours a day on social media.

“There are books to be read, landscapes to be walked, life to be fully lived. This new epidemic of distraction is our civilization's specific weakness. And the threat isn’t to our minds, while they shape-shift under the pressure. The threat is to our souls and if this doesn’t relent we might forget we have any.”

-- Andrew Sullivan

Our lifestyles leave no time for what our souls need most.

Creating quiet for your soul to know and be known by God.

“Let him who cannot be alone beware of community . . . Let him who is not in community beware of being alone . . . One who wants fellowship without solitude plunges into the void of words and feelings, and one who seeks solitude without fellowship perishes in the abyss of vanity, self-infatuation, and despair.”

-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Matthew 3:17–4:2

And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” . . . Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.

Mark 1:30–39

Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told Jesus about her. 31 So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them. That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed.

The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. 

Creating quiet for your soul to know and be known by God.

“Without solitude it is virtually impossible to live a spiritual life, we do not take spiritual life seriously if we do not take time to be with God and listen to him.”

-- Henry Nouwen

“Spend an hour a day with our Lord and never do anything you know is wrong. All this and you will be fine”

-- Mother Teresa

Understand your personality, season, and stage. 

Practice not Performance  

“The soul is like a wild animal—tough, resilient, resourceful, savvy, self-sufficient. It knows how to survive in hard places. But it is also shy. Just like a wild animal, it seeks safety in the dense underbrush. If we want to see a wild animal, we know that the last thing we should do is go crashing through the woods yelling for it to come out. But if we will walk quietly into the woods, sit patiently by the base of the tree, and fade into our surroundings, the wild animal we seek might put in an appearance.”

-- Parker Palmer