Voxdei

Just a notice to whoever is reading this... it's probably going to be a little lengthy. Don't say I didn't warn you.
Nate has asked the entire body of the Stirring to fast from something that creates "noise" in your life and create that face-to-face relationship with God that he yearns to have with each and everyone one of us.
I honestly didn't realize how much "noise" was in my life until Nate spoke about it tonight. I mean, I knew I spent a little too much time on facebook and I listened to music basically all the time, but I just assumed that's normal. Well, I don't want that to be normal.
Tonight Nate spoke about all the different types of noise. Books, TV, cell phones, ipods, computers, advertisements, friends, jobs, your own thoughts, family, and basically everything else in life.
Now, these things aren't "bad." What is bad, is how much time I've been spending on these things rather than with God.
What is slightly ironic is that I've been trying to pray a lot more and make a conscious effort to worship God, but I keep using the excuse that I'm "too busy."
How could I have been so blind? Too busy for God? For my Creator? For the one being who DIED for ME? Lets just say that tonight was a huge slap in the face.
At the end of the service I just felt completely convicted with this. So I've decided to make some drastic changes.

I am fasting from:
Internet (other than paying bills)
Music
My thoughts (sounds weird, but I'll explain below)

Internet: I spend WAY too much time on there. Especially facebook. Even if I have nothing I will still stay on there wasting time. Not okay. I'm going one month without it. I'm turning off mobile updates from facebook and twitter. I'm not even going to blog, which I have been getting into lately. No myspace. No youtube. No nothing. Except to pay my bills and check how much money I have.

Music: This is going to be the hardest one, however this one has some exceptions too. I am addicted to music. I will admit it. I don't like driving in my car without it on. I don't like sitting in my room without some sort of music on. It's not just music that I have an obsession with.. but NEW music. It's bad. I find new people all the time and then sit and find out which albums I want and then wait for it to download and then listen to it. So, I've decided to go without music for a month. I'm allowing myself to listen to worship music because I feel that this coming month is going to be a HUGE time of worship. For the past, almost year now, I have felt this strong urge to just WORSHIP. To sing out. To dance. To just praise God. And music is a big way I express that. FYI I'm listening to music right now trying to get a small fix before I go a month without it.

My thoughts: Which I didn't think was a problem. But just tonight I went for a walk and was talking to God and I decided that I was going to stop talking and just spend some time in silence. As soon as I decided to do that my mind started REELING with thoughts about EVERYTHING and ANYTHING. So this month I am going to try to quiet my mind. To completely focus on God. To actually set aside time to just be completely silent. To spend time in solitude with God. What Nate said about solitude tonight really hit home for me. I have a really hard time with silence and I want to become more comfortable with it. I want to be able to shut up so I can hear God when He is trying to speak to me.

I also want to take an entire day with God. I want to find somewhere I can just go and sit. Or go and walk. But just spend an entire day with Him. Not thinking about anyone else or anything else. Just me and Him. That is a DEFINITE goal this month.

Another is to journal. Since I can't blog, I'm going to journal. I find that if I try to just pray I get really off track, but when I'm writing I'm much more focused.

Well, that's about it. I would love to have people praying for me that I be able to accomplish these goals. It would be greatly appreciated.
See ya in a month!
Much love,
Ashtyn

P.S. Here is my prayer to start off this month.

God,
First off, I want to thank you for putting this on Nate's heart and having him share it with the body and for challenging each and every one of us. I feel that our generation is in desperate need of a reconnection with you. In desperate need of a break from technology. And I want to thank you for challenging us with it so that we can be an impact to our friends outside of the Stirring.
I ask that you give me determination to stick this month out. I know that the things I am fasting from, You want me to fast from. You showed me each and every one of these things. You see what has ahold of my attention and you are redirecting it back to you.
I ask that during this month, all of my attention will be on you. With creating that face-to-face relationship that we are all meant to have. I ask that you remind me of these things I am fasting from, but that you constantly remind me WHY I am fasting from them.
I pray for all my brothers and sisters at the Stirring. I pray that you would convict them with this message and give them the strength to go through with all of this. That you would help us all hold each other accountable for these things. In Your name.
Amen.