My social media break was less about breaking an addiction to posting and more about replenishing my soul with what gives lasting nourishment.

I’ve dubbed it ‘inspirational content fatigue.’

Maybe you can relate to my cycle:

Get on Instagram. Scroll through a handful of creative, Christ-exalting people sharing their stories and proclaiming the truth of God. Do this daily. Jot a few sentences or phrases that are extra impactful for me. Process and mull these things over with the Lord. Listen to a podcast episode. (Which one today? there are so many great conversations to choose from?) Get to my own devotional time with Jesus and last barely 15 minutes because my mind and heart are weary from engaging all the other content.

Anyone else?

Two questions have been orbiting around my mind, both convicting and encouraging, for the past few weeks:

What crowds God and His inspired words out?

What invites God and His inspired words in?

In reference to silence, Ruth Haley Barton writes “we create space for God’s activity, rather than filling every minute with our own.” A break from social media was like a practice of silence for my mind. By spending most of my devotional mental and emotional energy processing others’ words about God, I began to lose the stamina to sit with and learn from Him directly through the Holy Spirit, prayer and the Bible.

What I’ve learned in a month?

Simply removing an idol doesn’t equate renewal or depth in my relationships (with God and with others). It takes willfully and intentionally choosing to fill the moment with Christ — abiding, listening, praying, worshipping, resting. I say this because when the time was free of social media, I almost impulsively filled it with other things: television, snacking, texting, and audiobooks.

Woe to me if I need content created by other people and yawn at the presence of God and His words for me.

How would you use those questions? What crowds God out in your day? What invites Him in?