Checkmate

In chess when one says checkmate, it’s said to state that you’ve made a move in which it is impossible for your opponent to win.

Checkmate, Satan.

With the way the world is today, we are all headed for losing ourselves if we don’t address it now.
The takeover that is happening before our eyes is subtle. So subtle, we can barely catch it. It’s a battle we all have to be willing to fight, in order to make a change. Once upon a time in my life, I had a friend who helped me realize a danger in my own life, I’ll quickly share that story here, the point of it being I’d like to be that friend who shares the danger in all of our lives now. Without her, my life could have turned out drastically different.

Signs and Symptoms

By the grace of God, I was placed in a suite my freshman year of college with an R.A. She very well saved me from a battle for my life. It was 3 months into the school year when she came into my room one day and handed me a packet of information. The first page read “Signs and Symptoms of Anorexia.” She said, “At least read the first page, I’m here if you want to talk it out with someone.” She left me to wrestle with the news she just delivered.

My perspective: I’d just moved 2.5 hours from home and started College with a newly diagnosed “food intolerance” to gluten…back in 2001 your options were not as they are today. I loved working out as I’d just come from years of being active in volleyball year-round. There wasn’t a lot to do in Mount Pleasant, MI. At the time I had yet to find out I also had a bit of ADD. All of that to say. I found that by working out I felt focused. So I’d go to the gym in the morning, class, eat, gym for afternoon focus, class, eat, gym before evening homework. Soon enough I was 155 upon entering college and 120 when she brought this to my attention. And I hadn’t thought anything of it, I was just building a new routine.

Slowly, we morph into building new routines, and these new routines can alter the course of our lives.

So I did as my R.A. asked. In the brochure, she handed me, was a checklist. Of the 20 signs and symptoms, I checked off 18. In the month that followed, she went with me to a doctor’s appointment, and much more that became required as I was still losing weight. At 5’9.5″ that weight was becoming dangerous.

Those signs and symptoms woke me up to something I probably wouldn’t have recognized otherwise. I spent about 3 years in total battling a disease that many people spend years/decades battling.

Check all that apply

Anorexia was an addiction, it was an addictive thing to be able to control the things that were outside of my control. A new life in a new town with new responsibilities and so on.

For this article let’s talk about social media, are we addicted?

Check all that apply…

___ Get on social media the moment I wake up.
___ Check my social media before heading to bed.
___ Scroll through videos without even noticing I’ve started.
___ Keep looking at my phone as kids/friends are talking to me.
___ Check my phone every 5 minutes or less.
___ Find myself on my phone at meals.
___ Get on my phone just to check the social status of a post.
___ Have purchased something daily from an app
___ Get distracted easily in my daily life, and can’t complete a task.
___ Have a device for each of my kids, to occupy them when…
___ Choose videos or shows over reading a physical book.
___ Notice that I’m easily irritable, and anxious.
___ Can’t leave a room without making sure my phone is with me.
___ My kids brought me my phone because I set it down, and they’ve noticed I don’t have it.
___ I meant to just watch one video real quick and now 30 mins have gone by.

If you’ve checked most of the above maybe a social media break is something you could benefit from!
I’m not saying leave it all behind, a lot of our world navigates from the internet nowadays. I’m saying pause long enough to notice what we should keep in our life and what we could give up because it’s taking life from us.

Checkmate

Just like anything in life, we should moderate it all. Life in moderation.
Let go of our excess or extreme need to have the world at our fingertips.

When we get system overloads (daily life) our firewalls crash (morals) and we allow malfunctions (satan) to override our system. Then our lives become spam (trash).

Instead, if we install protective measures (breaks, balance) we are more apt to catch the system overloads and keep them from crashing, and catch the malfunctions before getting spammed.

Earlier I mentioned how we slowly morph into building new routines. And new routines can alter the course of our lives… The cell phone addiction is a slow and subtle takeover. One more thing gets added, and more time is given. A new game app, a new social app, a new “it thing” like Wordle, everything adds more time to the device, and less time to living life before our eyes.

So, here is your checklist. Check all that apply, and do what works for you.
But, imagine a world where the checklist above was replaced with an alternative.

I’m off for a few months to see what alternatives happen in my life as I myself checked 10 out of 15.
And to me, that’s enough to realize I need to take a minute and evaluate the routines that have come to be in my life.

Our son turns 12 this year, and that means in another 6 years he’ll be moving out. How much have I already missed due to the nature of the culture we’ve created? It’s a culture of “Just a minute” or “when I’m done” (done what, watching clips that have enlightened you?) or “just a minute” (while I respond to this friend online about my extremely important post) vs. Listen to your question about the nature of life itself as you try to navigate this world…

Satan wants us distracted, it’s easier to spam us when we aren’t paying attention to what’s coming in.

Check all that apply, plan your route of attack, and then Checkmate that snake from your board of life.
Here is a link to the book I’m starting, if anyone wants to take this journey with me!
Or now you have it as a reference to come back to!

Book Link is an Affiliate Link