I asked God for growth & He pointed to the patch of dirt under my feet

Are we stepping outside our God-given sphere of influence by consuming too much online content?

I've been asking God to help me organize all the ideas I have for my work and what I want to create.

So many ideas, so little time.

Some days, it leaves me frustrated because as a working mom to a toddler and a baby, I barely have any time to pursue these ideas.

The words and ideas haunt me. Scraps of thoughts are written on random pieces of paper, on the Notes app in my phone and in my Asana projects.

Because I genuinely love writing, creating and helping others. I want to see more women in thriving marriages and living purposeful lives. It’s what lights me up.

I know these ideas and this mission is from God. I feel the anointing when I write and when I speak. It’s holy ground.

So when I prayed for clarity on which of my writing projects to focus on in the limited time I have in this season, the answer wasn't what I expected, but it also shouldn't have surprised me.

Unplug. Spend less time online. Focus on the sphere of influence and what is under your authority in this season. Instead of taking on something new, tend to what you already have.

It's a call to narrow my circle when I'd rather widen it. I want a blooming garden and exponential growth, but I see God pointing me to the small patch of dirt I’m standing on. To maximize returns from what I already have.

This is the season for getting my hands in the dirt: cultivating discipline and life giving habits, planting seeds of legacy, pulling weeds of sin and distractions. The messy, hard work that takes patience, humility, wisdom, discipline, time.

Apostle Paul gets this. He writes about it in 2 Corinthians 10:13:

"But we will not boast beyond our measure, but within the measure of the sphere which God apportioned to us as a measure, to reach even as far as you."

In this verse, the word "sphere" is translated from the Greek word kanōn, which means "measuring rod". Paul uses this word to describe the extent of the service area that God assigned to him and where he is determined to stay even as people compared him to other disciples and how big of followings they had. “Why don’t you do that too?” was the implication.

Paul goes on to say that he hopes his sphere of influence extends only once the faith increases of those he is ministering to. Because those who prove faithful with the little they have today, will be entrusted with more later.

That's counter-cultural right?

In today's world, we are all about growing our spheres: more followers, more likes, more money, more influence, more stuff. Everywhere you turn, there's someone trying to tell you how to expand your sphere. It's happening even in our churches - gone are the days of small country churches as pastors today try to build megachurches and personal brands. It's all about quantity, not quality.

I feel that pull too.

But I keep seeing this picture of God's hand drawing a circle around me and telling me to stay in that sphere.

As in: here is your patch of dirt. Don't be looking to the left or the right, or plotting how to enlarge the circle. Just tend to the work you have in front of you right now.

What's in the sphere of my patch of dirt right now?

1. My husband and our kids

2. Our homestead

3. Our local community (church, family, friends)

4. The work we have to do with the seed house, our couples ministry and my day job

5. The women who currently read my writing (my book, our e-books, and this Substack)

What's not in the circle?

Literally, everything else. But mostly, the internet.

Because if I created a pie chart of where my time and attention goes, the internet - consuming online content and scrolling - would take up way more of that pie chart than it should in light of I say are my priorities.

And to be honest, all the noise from the internet has been making me more anxious and distracting me from what matters most.

I heard someone describe being online as drinking content from a fire hose and that feels so accurate. It’s also like being in a noisy nightclub while praying to hear God’s still quiet voice.

The majority of the online world, including watching how others are living their lives through a screen, is not in my God-given sphere. It probably isn’t in your sphere either.

Because this is where we go wrong: when we focus too much of our time and attention on following other people's lives and striving for more, especially at the expense of stewarding what is in our sphere, we go outside our God-given sphere of authority. We go where God’s protection and provision do not extend to.

Apostle Peter has a word for this: allotriepiskopos, translated as "busybody" or "meddler" (see 1 Peter 4:15).

Episkopos means "overseer," one having authority. So an allotriepiskopos is an overseer who has stepped outside the bounds of his authority and meddles in areas he has not been given responsibility for.

It's being in a place you're not meant to be, looking at what isn't yours to consume, doing what God isn't asking of you, and taking on responsibilities that don't belong to you.

It’s a curated world of our own design, beyond what God appropriated for us, often leaving us exhausted, anxious, discontent, distracted and in a constant loop of comparison.

Because so many things we take on or chase or desire are things God knows aren’t His best for us and so He doesn’t call us to them — we take them up at our own volition. We forget that His boundaries are for our good, not for our harm.

It’s like God giving you one apple and you eye your neighbor’s apples instead — or even wander over to your neighbor’s field — and ask God for the entire orchard of apples, while neglecting (or not fully paying attention to) the one apple God entrusted to you.

Tell me this isn’t the exact picture of me scrolling Instagram while my kids play next to me — I call it encouraging them to play independently, but is that what God sees when he sees this scene?

I know what my kids see because recently my two year old, Levi, has been saying, “Mama, put your phone in your pocket and look at Levi.”

This is an example of leaving my sphere and meddling in other people’s spheres.

That convicts, doesn't it?

I definitely feel the sting.

To be honest, I don't know the specifics yet of how to navigate this. I'm still praying and thinking through this because it feels like a life altering shift. Like swimming upstream again the mainstream current, any that feels rebellious.

But I know I need to scale back to my sphere of influence and authority and be very intentional with stewarding well what I have been entrusted with in this season.

• Less social media scrolling. More time being present with the people in my real life sphere of influence.

• Less screen time. More life-giving reading and learning.

• Less "researching" and consuming content. More intentional, brave execution of the ideas God has put on my heart already.

• Less striving. More resting.

• Less processed food and sugar. More real, nourishing food.

• Less stuff. More peace.

• Less spending. More investing.

• Less learning from people. More learning directly from the Holy Spirit and God's word.

• Less seeking to gain new "followers” and likes. More serving who God has already put in my sphere.

• Less growing out. More putting down roots and cultivating what's under my two feet today.

Making these shifts is going to be really hard. Because habits are difficult to re-build and social media is an addicting mistress.

Note, this isn’t about quitting social media or the internet but using it wisely and intentionally — using it as a tool vs. being lead and influenced by it.

I’ll be honest, I struggle to understand how we can grow our ministry and business without constantly feeding the algorithms and building online community, but I know God rewards the obedient.

I cannot deny that this is exactly what God is asking of me right now and delayed obedience is disobedience.

I'm nervous, but also excited to see what God has on the other side of my obedience.

Until next time,

P.S. If this resonates, you must read The Unplugged Hours by Hannah Brencher. I’m about halfway through the book and I know God needs me to hear these words right now because it’s a continuation of what the Holy Spirit has been teaching me lately. Highly recommend!

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