What I Gained From Losing Access to the Internet

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

I took my laptop to school today, thinking that I'd be able to connect to the WiFi at the Institute, but apparently, they're having Internet troubles, too. A part of me thinks that was my fault. A part of me thinks that God has some special reason for not letting me connect to the Internet. I'm not sure what that reason is, but I have a few ideas of what it might be.

It may be that there's some lesson God wants me to learn from not being able to connect to the Internet. I sometimes see spiritual lessons in everyday experiences. Maybe there's a lesson God wants me to learn from this. I'm not entirely sure what that lesson might be, except that we can always connect to God, but maybe there's another lesson that God would like me to learn.

Or maybe God just wants me to take a break from regular Internet usage. I hear that the Internet can be addicting, and that, in order to overcome an addiction, a person has to abstain from the addictive substance or practice for an extended period of time. If God wants me to cut back on my Internet habit, maybe He's temporarily preventing me from accessing the Internet to help me get started.

It could be that there's something in particular about the Internet right now from which God is trying to protect me. Maybe there's a video on YouTube that I would watch, but that I shouldn't. Maybe there's a post on Facebook right now that would shake my faith if I saw it. It's possible that something online would have a strongly negative influence if I were to access it right now, and God is trying to protect me from it.

Of these three ideas, I think that the second one is the most likely. The Internet is a powerful tool for connecting people from around the world, but it is also good at building barriers between people who are sitting right next to each other. Before our Internet went out, I would spend most of my time in the evenings watching YouTube videos with headphones on. Since our Internet went out, our family started reading together between dinner and family prayer. It's been really nice. I often turn to the Internet for stress-relief and amusement. Maybe God wants me to spend more time with my family instead.

I don't think I'm going to fully disconnect from the Internet any time soon. For one thing, I'm going to have to post these blog posts eventually, and for another thing, the Internet is far too useful a tool to swear off completely. I will log on again. But hopefully, from now on, or at least for a little while after our Internet comes back on, I won't go online as frequently or stay online as long as I did and would like to. My family is more important than the Internet, so I should definitely spend more time with them than I spend online. Maybe that's the lesson God wanted me to learn from not being able to connect to the Internet.