Wake Up, Look Up

Hello, everyone, and thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up, a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Zach Weihrauch, and in today's episode, we're asking the question, do you even fast, bro? And this is based on an article I read recently in the Washington Post about how constantly checking your phone. Don't turn this episode off. I know you're gonna feel judged. I felt judged. Constantly checking your phone is in a complete drain of your focus and your memory. Listen, the average American underestimates how much they check their phone, because we're checking our phone, on average, around 100 times a day. Think about that a hundred times a day, and it results in a cognitive decline. The more we check our phone, the more screen time we have, the less we are actually able to think. Consider how not just how frequently you reach for your phone, but when you do it. Because what happens is we reach for our phone when we're stuck, when we're bored, when our thinking has stagnated, but another way of saying that is anything that takes more than about 30 seconds of attention, we disconnect from to reach our phone. In fact, studies are starting to show that smartphone dependency is wearing the same pathways in our brain that addiction to drugs or alcohol does. Our brain is rewiring because of how much we're checking our phone. 80% of, people with a smartphone are sleeping next to their phone, having it in arm's reach so that they can check it throughout the night. So if you're not sleeping, consider maybe even. That's why you go to restaurants. People have their phones on the table. When's the last time you talked to someone for more than five minutes and they didn't look at their phone during the conversation? Look, scientists are telling us if we don't start turning our phones off, leaving them in a drawer, putting them down, we're going to regret who they turn us into. Now, this is a spiritual, podcast, so let me pivot into this. You know, the Bible has a lot to say about the spiritual discipline of fasting. And when the Bible talks about fasting, it is talking about abstaining from eating food. But the reason why is because in that society, the thing you woke up thinking about, you went to bed thinking about was getting food. They worked for the food they ate. They weren't going to the supermarket. They weren't. They weren't going to the market down the street to buy their groceries. They weren't taking a little break from Lunch, they were trying to survive. So when you disconnected from food, what you were saying is, at a fundamental level, what I most need to survive is not food, it's God. It was a reminder that my dependence on God is what is ultimately true. The problem with fasting today, at least fasting from food, is that none, of us really worry about where our next meal is going to come from. Even if I opt out of breakfast or lunch or dinner, I know a snack or a meal is just a doordash away. It's very easy for me to get food. So taking a break from eating doesn't necessarily produce the same mental pathway that biblical fasting did. but turning off your phone would. Consider this. In Isaiah 58, 6, God says this. I love this quote. God says, is this not the kind of fasting I have chosen to loose the chains and to break every yoke? You see, God says in Isaiah that the purpose of fasting is to untether us from masters other than him. In ancient times, when you stopped eating, you were untethering yourself from the master of the tyranny of work. But we're not enslaved, most of us, to food anymore. We're not worried about providing for ourselves in that way. Our new master is Apple or Google. It's the maker of our smartphone. Most of us, if we're honest, would say if anyone other than God is actually in control of our lives, it is our phone. And if you doubt that, consider once you realized I was gonna argue that you and I should be fasting from our smartphones and, how many arguments you were making in your head and in your heart on why you just simply couldn't do that. Those arguments are the reason to do it. God says fasting is to set us free. Free from masters, free from little G gods who have tyranny over our lives. So I really want to encourage you and I'm encouraging myself here to begin a regular rhythm of fasting from your smartphone. For the very reason that the Bible told people in ancient times to fast to from food. Our phones feel like the center of our lives. They feel like the place we go for answers, the place we go for comfort, the place we go for entertainment. We worry about whether or not we could even function without them. And that's why we need to turn them off. Look, at your core, what you need more than anything is a vibrant, growing, healthy, dynamic relationship with God, informed by the scriptures, filled with the person of his holy Spirit, eyes filled with focused on Jesus. And that is messy work. It's deliberate work. It's going to take attention and focus, and it's never going to happen if 15 seconds into it I'm reaching for my phone. So today, make a commitment at some day in some way that you're going to set a fasting rhythm for yourself from your phone. Let's take our eyes off of our little G God and put them and the God who made us and loves us in Jesus. Hey, thanks for watching this episode of Wake Up, Look Up. If you enjoyed it, please help us get the word out by sharing it with someone you think might benefit from it. And while you're here, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get further content or even download the CCC app, where you'll find even more resources to help you grow in your faith and relationship with Jesus Christ.

Have an article you’d like Zach to discuss? Email us at wakeup@ccchapel.com!