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We have started reading a very important book, just released: Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport. The book starts by comparing the purveyors of Internet content to tobacco companies who finally admitted they had been working to make cigarettes even more addictive. The programmers at FaceBook and other companies are doing the same thing: figuring out how to keep us clicking and staying on their sites.

The book recommends the following criteria for using any particular app:

1. Does it contribute to a deeply felt need?
2. If yes, is it the best way to meet that need?
3. How exactly will I use it to meet that need?

For example, if I have a deeply felt need to stay connected to my adult children, I might need to be on FaceBook for that purpose. Criterion 3, however, requires that I determine how and when I will use Facebook so that I don’t end up spending hours instead of minutes online.

The book also has a decluttering chapter that reminds me of Marie Kondo’s house decluttering strategy.

I’ll be writing more on this later, but for now, consider (as my wife, June, reminded me) that when we declutter our houses and declutter our minds, we have more space to listen to God.

Be still, and know that I am God. (Psalm 46.10)

“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. (1 Corinthians 6.12, NIV)

(By the way, I don’t make any money promoting others’ books!)