From Repurposed Find to Life Found Day 9

Day 9

Do you ever consider your dependence on your smartphone? We can be leaving the house and get half way to our destination and realize we left it and turn all the way back around to get it. We have a hard time living without it. Think of all we store on our phones. I mean, who remembers phone numbers anymore, we just store it under a name in our phone. We store birthdays on the calendar, our appointments and to do list are on the calendar. We store our photos because our phone is also a camera. We store our bank information through mobile apps. We store our bank cards on them now. You don’t even have to carry your wallet or purse around anymore everything’s on your phone. Our social media is on our smart phone to, we connect with people through texting, through messaging, through FB messaging, instagraming, and the list goes on and on. Recently, my niece went through a terrible break up with her boyfriend. Though she’s young, it was her first serious relationship and all their memories were on her phone. Their pictures, their music, their messages back and forth. It was painful for her. It was a storehouse of her world and a big part of that world included this boy. She asked my advice, I told her to delete the contact, but there was so much to delete the best thing for her to do was reset her entire phone. This way she could start over fresh, there would be no reminders of this former world and healing could begin.

Friends thats what it’s like to hit our reset button in life. Interestingly, when reset our phone you’re given the option—reset to a back up on your computer of your phone exactly as it was or reset to factory settings. Resetting to factory settings means everything is lost or should we look at it as everything is gained? You see, I think too often we want to reset and still include some toxic things in our life. Rather than give them up completely, we think we’re strong enough to handle it this time. We think surely we can convince that person to change this time. We just need to be more patient with the situation and it’ll change. Friends, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. If we don’t change the channel, if we don’t start letting go, start reframing our thoughts…start allowing our minds to reset, we cannot expect change that sticks. 

The point is, on our own, it’s us willing the change. The negative to that is the minute we fail, the minute we slip, we condemn ourselves. We believe that we can’t do it, we lose hope. We need to rely on our loving Father. To lean on Him not only for strength but for grace. To remind us daily to shift our thinking. I know for me, in my world something good happening was a very uncomfortable experience. I would wait for the bottom to fall out. Then I wondered, would I respond that way if I had a mindset of gratitude? If I were just grateful for the good experience what would that look like? Could I be present in the moment, drinking up the fullness of it or would I continue to question it and miss the gift of the experience? 

In your quiet time today, consider what it would look like for you to hit the reset button. Are you ready to be restored to your “factory settings” or are you going to try to reset with a back up in place. Consider what the hardest thing is to give up as your being “reset” is it a person, a substance, a fear? 

Hebrews 12:1

New International Version (NIV)

12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,