Dear Elim Grace,

A challenge to myself this year has been to have my iPhone on my body less, especially at home.

Our iPhone goes everywhere we go. There’s a “weight” when you carry it. A “pressure”. And for many of us, without thinking, we keep our iPhone on our body after we enter our homes. It can restrict our ability and willingness to focus, to rest, to play, to be present.

If we’re honest, it’s on us when we sit down at our table to have dinner. It’s on us when we lean back on our couch to watch a show. It’s on us when we go into our bathroom or when we grill our burgers or when we do the dishes or when we read to our children. It’s on us, but why?

We learn to carry things in life. Sometimes those things become a part of us. And then, to be free, we have to learn to un-carry those things.

For many of us, the iPhone has become a part of us. How we work and play and rest and study and create. How we go about not only doing but also being. Our lives have been habituated to them by them. But now we need to re-habituate our way of navigating around our home and the relationships that should matter most to us. It’s no longer as easy as putting our iPhone down; we have to learn to un-carry it. Physically, psychologically, emotionally. To shed the weight of it. The need of it. The want of it.

My daughter-in-law recently texted me that her and my son have created a “home” for their phones when they’re home and “it has been soooo nice!”.

The truth is I don’t need my iPhone to be the best husband I can be for Alissa, nor to be the best father I can be to my children. But the truth is my iPhone can keep me from being the best I can be, if I let it.

If I don’t learn to un-carry my phone at home.

The habit is worth the effort, because they’re worth the best of my time.

Pastor Jonathan