As part of my own spiritual rhythms, I’ve been practicing the Spiritual Discipline of Unplugging. Each Tuesday is my day of rest, so Monday evening at 8pm I turn off my phone completely and do not turn it back on until Wednesday morning. 

Crazy, I know! “Not be available?! What if someone needs me? What if someone thinks I’m ignoring them? What if the work just piles up in my absence?” 

Sometimes unplugging feels like the hardest thing. And yet it has been transforming my spirit and my mind. It’s teaching me humility as I honor my limitations. Each of us only has so much to give of ourselves before it becomes depleting for us and no good for everyone else. We need sleep. We need play time. We need work and good food and rest. 

Unplugging for a full 24 hours forces me to reckon with this truth week after week:

The world can survive without me for the day.

My goodness! It surprises me every time. Not only does this foster a humility of spirit, but it invites me to trust God to care for everything and everyone while I’m away. 

Aside from the effects unplugging has on me, it has a communal and global impact. Unplugging is a way of saying,

“I see our world is a battered place. But I believe if we allowed all people and all of creation to rest as God rested and as God commanded, we would find healing.” 

Maybe some of you will join me in this weekly rhythm of unplugging? Maybe even for an hour or two? May the Spirit guide us into truth and peace, leading us to be a beacon of hope in our battered world.