You may not know what a Nope Nope is but it's something that, when explained, will probably sound familiar to you. I decided that for a whole month, I wouldn't involve myself with social media. You may call it taking a fast/break/detox/whatever, but I decided all those words sounded really intense. So, to goob it down, I called it a Nope Nope. If someone asked if I saw this or that on Instagram or Facebook (which happened almost every day), I'd say, "I am Noping. So nope." And it gave my experience quite the comic relief.
And let me tell you, I needed that comic relief because Noping was painful.
This is something that's hard to admit for anyone--to say that being away from social media is actually painful. But it makes for a great Allison blog where vulnerability and humor come together, shake hands and slap a puck around with hockey sticks (at least, that's what goes on in my head whenever I write. Now you know my secret).
People have their reasons why they go on fasts (or nopes), and they all go about it in different ways. And guess what? They come back learning different things--or nothing at all, which is also okay. For myself, I decided not to even post on social media that I was vanishing like the great Houdini (it was a very spontaneous decision anyway), because it didn't matter if anyone noticed or not. The experience was for myself!
And quite the experience it was, for the first three days I have to admit that I felt the "withdrawal", which sounds like a severe word but it really means, in this context, the absent feeling of something I had often. If there is one thing I learned through this silent month of my life (very silent) is this:
Evenings are meant for self-reflection. Am I the only one that lays my head down at night when all is quiet and there is no one to bother me, and my mind thinks of my day, or something that happened 5 years ago that makes me cringe still when I brush my teeth sometimes? No. I am not that strange to be the only one who does this. Self-reflection in the evenings are natural for anyone and is in fact a very healthy thing. We remember things we didn't like about our day (or our life choices several years ago) to help us make better choices next time, and we remember things we loved about our day (or experiences from way back) to help us look forward to the next, and so forth! Mornings are also important like this and how you determine to start you day means everything.
The problem I didn't realize I had was that I was on social media before I went to sleep and as soon as I got up. When I went on the Nope Nope, the absence at night and the morning was horrifying! I didn't have that bright screen searing my eyes to raisins, distracting me from how I felt inside. All this junk was in there that I kept avoiding because gosh darn it I really wanted to watch little wiener dogs play Cops and Robbers.
But today is my first day coming back from the undead (the land of the Nope), and I can tell you that I learned to fill that empty feeling in my heart with lots of Jesus. I would have never known I needed it unless I kicked my social media habits to the curb! I'll be sure to keep my nights and mornings open to comfortable silence before opening Facebook to a world of chaos (where I like to sprinkle goober things because that place needs a lot more giggly chuckles).
Anyway, I'm not writing this to persuade you guys to do the Nope Nope (good luck if you do; you're gunna need it--and a Kleenex box). But I really want you to think about how you spend those last few minutes before you close your eyes. Your phone is a very loud device and if you're not careful, you might miss some golden opportunities to let Jesus in and sweep up that dark abyss of a closet you have.
Pretty sure Jesus found Gollum and a few chocolate wrappers in mine.
So, yeah...moral of the story is: the Nope Nope Challenge definitely makes for a finer life. And who wouldn't want that?
