We Were On A BREAK!

Real talk…..How many people thought of friends when reading the title?!

Just fair warning, this post has nothing to do with FRIENDS. Yes, I really did that to you.

Today at sundown was the start of a 40 day fast that my church is leading. It is being broken up into four different parts, each lasting ten days.

Phase 1 - Social Media
The obvious ones being Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and TikTok. Yes, this means you can’t watch hours of people doing 15 second dances and get in little wars over whether Popeyes chicken sandwich is better than Chick-Fil-A.

Phase 2 - Food
This could be anything from sugar, fast food, all liquid diet, the infamous Daniel Fast. You pick. This one hits home for all of the foodies

Phase 3 - ONLY WORSHIP MUSIC
You heard it here, yes….only worship music. No secular music.

Phase 4 - ONLY THE GOOD NEWS
Basically no form of news. No journals, newspaper, news station, radio news, twitter news, or reddit. Simply focusing in the good news alone, the bible.

To any person this would seem like it is impossible right?

I am usually pretty good at joining the fast and really focusing on prayer and giving of myself to God.

This time I was like “Hold up….wait a minute…my social media?” Mind you, I have gone on social media cleanses where I step away for a bit. Never had a problem with it. However, this time around I questioned on whether I could do it.

I mean Social Media is truly a very powerful business tool and while I don’t really care about my personal account very much - I am trying to build a business. After acknowledging that I needed to do the fast, I can’t lie, I was a bit concerned. Not because I couldn’t see what people were doing and spend hours on it. I was concerned because I allowed myself to believe that ten days would control the trajectory of my business. Ten days would shatter any chance I had at growing.

Silly to think about and maybe you might be sitting saying to yourself, “Really Celine, quit the dramatics.” But it’s true. Ten days away from marketing my business on that platform made me feel like I was losing. Can anyone relate?

As silly as I felt and borderline ashamed as I was for even thinking these things, I really brought it to God. I asked Him, I wanted to know if I could just fast my personal account but keep building on my business account. Sitting in my room on Monday night, during a leadership team call, I expressed how I was feeling out loud (Not to the team…I was muted on zoom). Towards the end of our zoom call, Pastor Chris answered those questions. Almost as if I weren’t muted and he really was listening to me try to negotiate.

Without any hesitation he said something along the lines of “Y’all, I sell my book on instagram and even I am taking a break for the ten days from doing that. It will be there in ten days. It is okay.”

It is going to be okay. Hesitation will come but was I really willing to go all in on social media instead of trusting that God could build my business with or without it. I needed the reminder and I think many of us need the reminder. Social Media is simply a tool you can use, not the foundation that you build on.

Now all I can think of is the phrase “We were on a break”. I follow a couple of other creators on instagram and its almost like I was being hinted that it was okay to take a break. Three other small business creators I follow had all taken a break from social media for either a weekend or a week. All of them talking about it this past week. Coming back they looked refreshed and said I just needed a break but I am back.

Ten days is time for me to get in my word, create without pressure, to then comeback renewed and refueled. How can I be possibly be mad at that?! So yeah, it’s okay that we are on a break. In fact, it is encouraged. We are fed so much without even realizing it on social media. If you aren’t being honest in saying that you are overwhelmed then you need to re-evaluate. A lot has happened this year, heck, this month! Just like our phones and computers, devices have the capacity to take in only so much information before we can’t update the software. Our spirits are the same way. We store so much information that when it comes time for an update, we can’t process.

Take the time now. Declutter, allow yourself to process and make room for new blessings/seasons. I can assure you, something is bound to bless you in the best way possible in comparison to the “previous version”, whatever season you walked out of.

If you are concerned, thats normal. However, do not let it get in the way of seeking Him. You need to choose Him every time. Even when it’s hard. Even when you feel it doesn’t make sense. Even when you feel it contradicts your plans. He makes the plans, we just follow through.

It is okay to need a break.

It is okay to say “We are on a break”. That phrase will change to “We were on a break but I’m back and better”.