Sacrifice is a 10-day Internet fast...involuntary

This was intended to be a simple family update but my thoughts got the best of me. It should be under my personal blog, but since I can't move it, it remains under the family blog name.

We are. Officially moved.

These days moving isn't just toting a car-load of clothes on hangers to your new house, or setting the tea cups in the correct just-reachable shelf in the new kitchen. These days moving means getting cable hooked up again, re-wiring the large "battery" which ensures we always have electricity, and getting Internet up and running again.

Thus the hiatus from the Internet. I have just participated in an involuntary fast from blogging, emails, Skype calls, and CNN updates online. Our Internet connection was reconnected (although it is gone elsewhere in the city) only just this morning. It wasn't that long really, only 10 days, but when the men in charge did not return our phone calls for service, I began to feel antsy. This wasn't a voluntary fast with the intended results of me being less materialistic from the computer or a spiritual act to "feast" rather on God than on what the web is talking about (which I do believe to be important disciplines). I didn't choose this fast, a fast which kept me disconnected from family and friends, albeit 10 days.

And that was the hard part. I didn't choose it. But I've had time to think (imagine that!) and aks myself over the last 10 days...What if I had chosen to fast from email and blogging for my own personal reflections (fill in the blank for a zillion other things we depend on: food, TV, Ipod, exercise, etc)? At the conclusion of the fast, would I be less dependant or more aggressive for what which I'd abstained from? Realistically speaking, I'd much rather choose sacrifice than be given sacrifice.

Heroic singer, song-writer Rick Mullins writes, "I'd rather fight you for something I don't really want, than take what you give that I need." In college I was doing my level best to get over a relationship, and I pinned these words on my bedside. It was raw and real and cut me to the core. And those words have stayed with me ever since because it's not just about getting over an unhealthy relationship. It's about my focus and where it lies. It's about fighting for the right stuff and being okay when the good stuff is gone. Internet, blogging, email and Skype are all good good stuff. My husband couldn't do his work without it, and I couldn't stay connected with family and friends without it. But sometimes those things which make me comfy are taken away and I don't have a choice about it. At other times I do have a choice. And I guesss that either way, I want the outcome to be the same. To know it was good for me.

I'm glad this was good for me.