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You're listening to the Women of Faith podcast from Faith Church Indy.  These recordings are teachings from our 2025 Fall Women's Conference on Rest and Sabbath.  Thanks for listening. Hello everyone.  So  I decided  to start  with  us  thinking about  what we will face  internally  if we  come to the conclusion  that we need to implement some changes  in our lives  to  allow for  rest and time for rest  and presence with Jesus because it's pretty countercultural  to allow for that. um We  are  very busy people in general. um We tend to, I don't know, is this, I think this is, speaking for most of us,  that we wake up  to a mental to-do list. if in fact we didn't have that to-do list in our brains while we were supposed to be sleeping. um And so we were just  a uh productivity people.  And uh God made us to work,  so  there's good things about that.  But  it's going to take some changes for many of us  to  release. some of those distractions that are constantly in front of us.  And if we decide to do that,  we are going to have some emotional  reactions to implementing those changes.  And if we don't acknowledge that ahead of time  and prepare for what we're going to do when that hits,  then once it hits, we'll quit.  Right? It's just like any other change you try to make in your life. em So. This is what chat told me  about some of the common emotional reactions to anticipate  when we  are attempting to, particularly with regard to technology. OK, that's what I'm  mostly talking about because in our lives right now,  technology in one form or another demands our constant attention. And the thing is that so many of the productivity tools that we rely on,  our phones  hold them.  And so  literally that grip on that phone has a grip on our time, attention, and hearts often.  So if we were to set that aside, how many people  felt  something just putting their phone away for this weekend? Yeah,  I uh tried a new thing last, just last weekend so that I could speak to my experience  this weekend.  And  so  last Friday night to Saturday night,  chat GPT helped me  work on my phone. to set up an automatic message as text messages came in to say I'm on a 24-hour tech rest, blah, blah, blah, blah.  Anyway, I'll talk more about that in a minute. But  I'll give myself about a C  for how I did  last weekend, OK?  Because it is not very many minutes before I'm like, but, but.  I was on Brian's phone sending a message to him.  Now that was inviting a friend to come over because I had that because I realized how do I want to spend this time and I haven't seen you know, so I  You have to let me send the message though because I can't use my  Anyway, the point is um and then yeah, but but but throughout the weekend You do have these urges of the habit, right  and when you lay those habits down You will experience likely anxiety or restlessness.  Remember, part of it now is sort of an addictive reaction. Now, I do not use that word lightly because we all know that many of us in the room were impacted by various forms of addiction that have very devastating consequences for the person themselves or the person that lives around them, and I realize that. And so I'm not just calling tech addiction, you know, I don't like to throw that word around. However,  if it is something that when we set it down,  you feel  withdrawal almost,  like you miss it, you feel  being drawn back to it or something,  we need to pay attention to that. um We don't want technology to have that kind of  hold on our hearts and minds and attention. So anxiety, you're likely to feel that.  FOMO, what does FOMO mean? Your character's skin is Right?  Who's  messaging me?  What important thing does my adult child want to tell me today that I'm not going to hear until tomorrow? uh Loneliness?  Screens, chat says. uh often function as companions,  filling empty space or numbing pain.  Without them, the silence can feel stark.  We are not  good at quiet  and silence.  And I am going to talk about the fact when we get to some of the  practical things, um rest does not equal silence,  always.  It can be a component of it. but there are many ways to rest. But nevertheless, we do need to be aware of the fact that  silence can be very valuable to us, but because of the way that we live right now, it can also induce  some anxiety, right? And so we will often try to avoid it by filling the space with something.  We may feel  resistance,  right? Again, resistance against change.  And your brain is going to do everything it can to tell you to just go back to the way you were doing things before. um So we need to be prepared for that. We may feel some guilt or shame  realizing how much time we wasted,  how often tech distracts us from loved ones  that can trigger some guilt or shame. I'm such a bad  mom, I'm such a bad wife, I'm such a bad friend,  you know,  that may come up. Grief. We may grieve what we've missed being overly attached to screens, moments with children, emotional presence with the  spouse,  quiet moments with God. But number seven,  we may eventually, hopefully, experience some freedom and relief.  Yes? If  we prepare for those other reactions  and ah sit with them,  sit through them, move through them, hopefully we can get ourselves to a point  where it provides some freedom and relief. Okay.  So.  What does it mean to be prepared for those things?  For number one, expect it. Okay? When you start having those feelings of resistance  or whatever those feelings we were just talking about, ah it's part of the process. You're not failing if it feels hard. Okay, if it feels hard, you're probably doing it right,  actually. You're doing something different.  Jesus isn't asking for  perfection in this. He is inviting us into his presence,  right?  We're not looking to add laws. Any of the ideas that we talk about today are not laws for any of us,  but they may be opportunities  for us to spend,  be more deeply in the presence of Jesus.  You are not alone in this process. Other people and  one of the beautiful things  is that  if in our community, we now decide that some of us  are going to try to implement some of these things, we know. we are not doing them by ourselves.  Yes?  And so  maybe  we try to, one of the ways that we prepare is that we  be community together in some of these things. And we talk about what we're trying and how it's going and where we're finding some freedom and some relief and we encourage one another in that um we're not made to do things alone. We're certainly not made to do hard things alone. Chat says,  create a personal tech motto. For example,  I use tech as a tool, not a master.  But don't be prideful.  My attention is mastered by Jesus.  Something like that, right? Something that we, just a little phrase that we can bring to mind when those feelings of  discomfort or anxiety, put  on our mirror, put it on your window,  say it to one another,  get a tattoo.  Just now thought of that, I didn't say that's me.  Okay. um Set these truthful reminders into your life visually or auditorially from friends, right? Surround yourself with others um for whom we are trying  to,  yeah, do this together. And also, tell some key people in your life about the changes that you're making.  Now, I have a complicated relationship  with accountability, do you? Okay.  I'm going to tell you this because I think it's important that you know  that I'm about to change my dance and therefore it might have to change your dance steps a little bit. But if too many times you remind me when I'm not doing it, I'm going get ticked. You know, it's tricky to submit ourselves  to  healthy accountability.  And yet we need it.  So all I can say is we have to give one another grace. Right? You have to give each other grace. But I do think it matters that if we're trying to implement  changes that are significant in our life rhythms,  that there are people in our lives that are gonna need to know that. Can't just  do it because um They're part of our rhythm. They're part of our rhythm. And um when they don't know, and when we try it and we see that it's  not working and they already don't know anyway, then it's just gonna go away. It's not likely to be successful.  Okay.  So what are some of the things that we can try to implement? Here we go.  And these are  roughly, I put these roughly in order of.  Simplest easiest, but not as necessarily impactful to more challenging but could really have more of an impact. Okay The first one  Declutter your digital life  this means  you're  unfollowing  Muting things that are not out adding value to your life um Go through if you're if you're still an email person And some of this is generational, right? But if you're still an email person, please unsubscribe from all of those emails, things that just come at you and you have to delete, delete, delete, delete, delete, delete, delete, right? Or ignore and they just pile up and feel overwhelming. Take some time and go through and unsubscribe some of those things. Try to declutter as much as you can. Or use an email. Only, you know, an email for just the things where you know you're gonna end up on those lists, like a junk email sort of, and then an email that is for your peeps,  you know, and for really valuable things in your life. um On your, if you're, you know, on your devices, organize your apps and whatnot,  and  remove or hide the ones that you know  suck out your time.  You know what they are. The things that... just you just  can get lost in and you look up and it's been 45 minutes and it was supposed to be five or 10.  Just  get them off. Control notifications ruthlessly. This is number two.  Turn off non-essential notifications on your phone, your computer, your email, your social media, and as much as you can, close those extra tabs.  When you're trying to work, don't have your email open  where you see that you've got messages coming in.  You're trying to work.  Close that tab. Right?  Use do not disturb mode during your,  during focused work blocks  so that you don't have notifications coming in.  Even if they're silenced,  if your,  if your phone is sitting there and it blinks.   You can't help.  Who is it? Who's texting me?  And sometimes even just for me at work,  even turning it over doesn't always help because it's just too easy to put it, oh, physically away. Oh, I'm jumping ahead. We're going to get there. Yeah.  Control your notifications. Set your phone to grayscale mode. Everybody know what that means?  The primary mode on your phone, is they.  they do everything they can to make it pretty and beautiful and compelling and make you keep on looking. um You can change it to grayscale mode. It takes that color and appeal out.  I don't know, people smarter than me have decided that actually your brain doesn't respond in the same way to the grayscale mode.  So if you don't know what that means or you don't know how to do it, there's people here that do. And they can help you. Raise your hand if you know what I'm talking about and you can help somebody deal with that. Put your hands up high.  There you go. OK. um That was number, that we were still number two. Declutter your digital life was number one. Number two was control notifications ruthlessly. But for some reason they put gray scale under that. I don't agree with Chad on that, but whatever. Okay, number three.  Number three, design low tech routines. design low tech routines. That means paper and pencils, journaling for brainstorming, read physical books instead of ebooks, walk,  stretch, talk instead of scroll.  Right? Okay. Number four, and I'm realizing I'm keeping you from your, I'm sorry, I'm running late. Number four, set boundaries with time. Time  blocking in your life. Specific hours for focused work. Right? Specific hours  for a break.  Block out, it is perfectly appropriate for you to put in your schedule, take a walk. just like you put in, go to work or whatever you put in, know. Set boundaries with time. Do this and set, and it says set specific times for checking emails and messages because those are things that will launch you into other tasks. Like you had a plan, but then people email you with these questions or needs or whatever and suddenly the morning's gone because you jumped to doing those other things and you didn't get done with what you started with, all right? So don't even look at them in emails. Don't look at those emails and messages and texts and questions.  If you decided you were gonna do this today, block out that time for it  and then block out the time where you're go look at the message, which is when you're prepared to deal with them.  And this is hard because I know it's hard. I don't wanna let people down.  People  are counting on me for this information. They need me, they need me so much.   Okay, know,  Chad says start your day with prayer and scripture. We don't have to have a conversation about how there's mourning people and there's not mourning people. That's not a law. But Chad said it.  So all he's saying, he really wanted to say was,  if you're going to start your day with something, make it Jesus,  not your phone. Okay. Cut off your screens an hour before bedtime.  That's another time blocking thing,  okay? So that your brain  can settle  like the dirt in the water. um Okay, number, that was setting boundaries with time. Just  all different ways to do that.  Number five is physically separate yourselves from your devices. Okay, and this is  some of what we're doing this weekend. um my son found out that you could buy these physical cards. Who knows about this? It's a physical card that works with an app on his phone. He uses that card, he puts it up on his phone. It makes his phone turn off every app that,  or yeah, everything on his phone that he trained it to turn off with that card, okay? Then he puts the card  away at home and takes his phone to work. He is not capable of opening those blocked apps until he gets back home and uses the card to unlock it. uh My 21-year-old son found that. I'm so proud of him.  And he offered it to all his siblings.  I love him. They did. I don't know if they're using it. He's using it. don't know if any others are. And I'm not  yet.  But anyway, I'll just say there's There are things we can do and sometimes that's what it takes, right? Because  I have had a timer on my Facebook account forever. How hard is it for me to say, ignore that for today? Click.  The timer has done me no good. That app cannot be there. It cannot be there. And if  I, a 50-something-year-old woman who didn't grow up with a device, can you only imagine if you grew up with these things, having to try to overcome those urges of the technology? It is  rough. It is rough for our young ones. And so let's just help one another. Sometimes it takes the extreme measure  of taking it off your phone, Locking the phone up or using a card to lock it up something like that sometimes. That's what it's going to take Okay, and that brings us to number six which is use technology to fight technology and what I just gave you an example of that And there are other kinds of website blockers minimalist phone options Chat DPT to give you ideas or or if I couldn't figure out how to set up my automatic messages system, chat could help me do it if I didn't have a phone or friend, you know. Okay. I think that's probably where I'm going to need to wrap up, so you have your afternoon.  Here are some statements to reframe your thinking when you try some of these things and the feelings come up.  Close your eyes for a minute, just listen. These feelings can be invitations to prayer and deeper dependence on Christ. He offers peace beyond understanding. The Christian life is not measured by what we miss online, but by what we gain in Christ. Quiet spaces  are where Jesus often meets us most intimately.  Loneliness can be  an invitation into deeper communion with Him. like fasting or Sabbath,  setting tech boundaries is a spiritual discipline. Resistance  often signals that we're doing something meaningful. Jesus doesn't convict us to condemn, but to restore. This is a moment of grace,  not judgment. And God is the Redeemer of time. What feels lost can become fertile ground for healing and restoration. And finally, Jesus invites us to walk in freedom. Come to me, all who are weary. Tech limits can help us hear His voice more clearly.