information overload

So as I mentioned in my post Information Overload, I was convicted about attempting to gain as much knowledge as I could without really dwelling on anything I was learning. I wasn’t realizing that when I try to read as much as I can, I’m forgetting to really take the time to let the information I’m learning impact my actions as well- which means that it’s really not all that useful anyway. I’ve been praying and trying to figure out ways to avoid this and really soak in everything I read and not just read it to get it done.

The one thing that I felt God needed me to realize before I could really make a change was that He showed me that I was constantly trying to check things off my list and rushing through them because I was getting my worth from doing this rather than from Him. He showed me how the things that I was doing for fun we’re literally supposed to be for just that- fun. He wants us to rest in His love and what He did for us, not in what we can accomplish every day. Talk about conviction. But how amazing is that? It re-reminded me about how amazing our God is and has encouraged me to rest more and strive less.

I also have come up with a few ground rules to try to prevent myself from going into information overload and really try to soak in as much information and rest as I could:

1. Limit the amount of articles/blogs you read in a day.

I was reading an article this week about ways to destress and the author touched on this issue, and said something that really resonated with me. It said, “The amount of information your brain can process is limited.” I guess I kind of knew this but to actually read that it was a fact made it even more real that I can’t just try to obtain as much information as I could- that my brain had a limit and needed rest. Now I don’t know if it’s really necessary to set an actually number of articles or blogs to stop at but at least for me, I can feel when my brain needs a break and I’ve started listening to that more and stopping then rather than trying to keep reading more because I felt like I wanted to know more.

2. Spend time more time with Jesus in the word or in prayer.

This is especially important if you struggle with getting your worth completely from Jesus and not from your accomplishments like I do. I’m convinced if we spend more time either talking with Jesus or learning more about Jesus then we will be reminded of His great love for us and won’t feel the need to strive for more. The key to this is to not make spending time with Jesus something that you “have” to do though. We will only feel fulfilled by Jesus when we come to Him in complete surrender, rather than as something we must do. He loves us too much for that.

3. Only do things for recreation when you actually want to.

This one may sound really weird to some of you if you don’t struggle with this like I do but I realized that I was even adding fun things on my to do list and felt like I had to do them, which was taking the fun out of the “fun things” as you could imagine it would haha. I felt like I had to do these things to feel good about myself. God opened my eyes to this and I have been working on it and only try to do fun things when I really want to do them and not when I feel like I should or when I feel like I “have” to rest.

This has been a process and I still do struggle with it but now that my eyes are opened to what I’m doing I am at least attempting to stop. I want to get my worth from Jesus alone but I won’t does anyone else struggle with this? And if you do, do you have any helpful tips?

My pastor said something in one of his sermons a few weeks ago that I haven’t been able to get out of my head. It was something along the lines of how we live in such an information age and it’s so easy to hear and read biblical advice anywhere. He specifically used an example of sermons- we are able to listen to basically any sermon we want to online and jump from sermon to sermon without dwelling on anything we learned. His fear was that we spend all this time listening to sermons or hearing biblical advice but we never take the time to make a change to our own lives concerning the advice that we just learned.

This got me thinking- do I do this? I am constantly on the look out for more- more blogs to read, more books to read, more pastors to listen to online. I have a mile long list of books I want to read and sometimes I catch myself speeding through the book I’m reading so that I can get to the next one. And for what? Why am I doing this? I’m not even taking the time to enjoy what I’m reading. I even do this when reading my bible sometimes- I want to read the through the whole bible in a certain amount of time and I hate to admit it but sometimes I am reading it just to check it off my to do list for the day. I’ve recently decided to make reading my bible a daily habit because I know how important it is to transforming our minds. But I guess I’d have to it just because I feel admit that reading like I “have” to kind of defeats the purpose of reading it at all doesn’t it? If I’m not really letting this information transform me or using it to spend time with God then what’s the point?

I need to really dwell on the information I’m taking in when it comes to biblical advice if I really want it to transform me. If I’m reading just to get it done and on to the next I’m missing so much. I’m still in the process of figuring out what it means to really simplify my life and really enjoy the things I’m doing. My fear is that I’m always looking for what’s next and never really present in the moment itself.

I think some of these issues are rooted in me being such a performance driven, type A person and I tend to value myself based off of what I’ve done for the day even if that means just finishing a book. I don’t want to be this way though- I want to rest in what Jesus has done for me and really value myself based off of that because that’s the only thing that really matters.

Does anyone else struggle with this? I don’t want to miss the important things in life because I’m always focused on what’s next. Does anyone have any helpful tips? I’m going to really spend time in prayer and try to set some rules to help me make sure to keep me from an information overload- maybe only allowing myself to read 2 books a month or something along those lines to insure that I really am enjoying the moment, I’ll report back sometime next week with what I’ve found and some tips for anyone else who might struggle with this as well 🙂