(It’s guest post Friday! Today’s post is from Christy Newton. If you’d like to write a guest post, click here.)
Something has been strongly weighing on my heart. I need to confess it, but I’m scared I’m the only one struggling with this. I’m being vulnerable, so here we are:
I’ve let so many unread daily devotionals rack up in my email, you’d think I’d been raptured. These devos have been in the form of blog posts & just plain website databases who thought I could handle three or eight different devos a day. One subscription goes through the whole bible in a year, another is for godly women, another is a pastor back home with sweet tattoos & coiffed hair who writes a lot about millennials & the book of James. There are posts from scientists at creation institutes that blow my mind slash encourage me every time I read them, as well as emails from a blog written by a dude who *just* knows how to get deep about God.
It all typically goes the same way:
I come across something online that is intellectual about my faith, and I get excited (“someone gets me!”), and then the “Subscribe by Email” button is all shiny & sitting there & sure enough I end up setting goals of “read this everyday!” and skip along my way.
Then, the first email comes — I’m ready for you. Reading through you Word for Word (hah) and enjoying all that you are offering me.
Second email, you’re already blending in with my 14 other unread devo-like subscriptions… Maybe I’ll get to you today because you’re still so new.
Third email, and you’re just another pretzel I’m determined to finish. (I can’t deal with pretzels. They bother me because they’re so plain & there are usually so many of them at once. There’s no roller coaster of fun when eating them.)
Email four — Sure enough, there are 78 unread emails in my “SOCIAL” tab all from the last 4 days, and then I find myself rushing to read all of them by skimming & making them not be highlighted anymore.
Sooo… The dreaded “unsubscribe of shame” commences. I didn’t ever want this. We had something special. I was in this for the long haul, but then I just couldn’t juggle it with everything else. I already feel like a bad Christian because I can’t read every devo in my inbox, let alone the internet world. Please forgive me, and let me still go to your page from time to time?
I’ve probably unsubscribed to 8 daily devotionals in my email, but I still have so many that I can’t keep up with. You try and hang on & make it work with the remaining ones I guess. At least that’s what one of the posts has talked about.
I also am subscribed to a Christian satire website, and I have to say, I cannot part with it. I should probably change around my priorities.
Am I the only one who deals with this?
(For more great stuff from Christy, follow her on twitter!)
