The INSANE Benefits of A Digital Fast (No One Regrets Doing This)

Most people think, "I control my life through my phone." The truth is, your life is controlled by your phone. We think that we're using it, but it's actually using us. Every person that I've ever said, "Have you ever done a digital detox?" They say the same thing. They say, "No, but I need to." And it is very difficult to hear the voice of God when every distraction discretionary quiet moment in your life is filled with doom scrolling. The enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy, Jesus said in John 10. I've come that you may have life. Well, the reality is the enemy is stealing our time, killing our joy, and destroying our relationships. And really, it's all through what has become a digital appendage. It's attached to us all the time. 92% of Americans have a smartphone. It's general population, 5 to 7 hours a day. Teenagers 7 to 9 hours a day screen time. What is that doing to people?

Hey everyone, you know, we're in this great study in 2 Peter. We're talking about bringing truth that Peter wrote about 2,000 years, how it really applies to today, to a lot of situations we're facing. We're gonna take just a little break and we're gonna interview Pastor Darren Whitehead today. He wrote a book that I think is so relevant called the Digital Fast. And so we will get back on the next podcast, right back on track with 2 Peter. But let's go right to that interview with Pastor Darren Whitehead. I am so excited today because I'm having my first guest on the program, and that is the pastor of the church Lisa and I attend, our pastor, Pastor Darren Whitehead. Darren, it is so good to have you on.

I am delighted to be here. Thank you so much for being here in your new beautiful space. It's incredible.

You know what? That accent sounds like you might be Southern or from somewhere in the world, maybe.

Yes, yes. I'm from Mississippi. No, I am from the true South. That is down under. I'm from Australia, but I've lived in the US for 26 years. I married a Tennessean, an American girl.

Yeah.

And I was going to get deported, so I got married to an American. No, I'm just kidding. No. Yeah, but I got married 22 years ago to Brandy. And I have lived in the US for the last 26 years. I have lived in America longer than I lived in Australia.

And tell everybody about your children.

I have 3 daughters, 3 half-American, half-Australian daughters. Sydney is 17, Scarlett is 15, and Violet is 13.

So I literally almost fell out of my seat laughing Sunday. You said something about, yeah, my daughters will say what now? What is this?

Well, with a mother from Tennessee and a father from Australia, my girls say, g'day, y'all.

So anyway, tell us about Church of the City. And I got to tell everybody, the first time I ever heard your voice was on Michael's worship song, Let It Rain. Yes. Michael W. Smith. My goodness, how did that name escape me? But Lisa and I, we love that song, Let It Rain. And right in the middle of it, there was this Australian guy that came in and started reading out Psalm 97. Yes. Oh my gosh. Every time the presence of God would just fill our car and I'm like, Who is this Australian that read this and is such a powerful presence? And then I find out years later it was you.

Isn't that crazy? We recorded that in 2001.

Yeah.

I'd been living in the US for about 2 and a half years. I grew up listening to Michael W. Smith, and it turned out I was leading a youth group and his son was in the youth group. So that's how I met him. And we became friends, and he asked me to come and do something. Read something, pray, whatever, in the middle of this song. And so, so I felt like I should read Psalm 97. And we recorded that in Florida. And then that album— this is back when CDs were really the thing— but that CD released on September 11, 2001.

I did not know that.

Yeah, that's when it came out.

Wow. So, so the first time I met Michael W. Smith was in the year 2000.

Oh, is that right?

And he was serving me cookies. What? Yeah. So his mother— so it was the first book that I published with HarperCollins and with Thomas Nelson. His mother was publishing her cookbook. Oh, Bob Brown. And so he comes out, he comes out serving a recipe from her cookbook to all of us authors that were meeting there that day. It was actually quite funny. I thought, gosh, Michael, I never thought the first time I'd meet you would be serving me cookies. I thought it would be in some big massive auditorium where I'd come hear you sing.

You know, his parents, I've known them for as long as I've known Michael, and I did his dad's funeral. And then his mom Barbara died just a couple of years ago, and I got to go by and see her before she passed.

Wow.

Very special people.

Yeah, they are. Special family, special people. Yes. Okay. And now tell us about Church of the City.

All right. So we planted Church of the City in 2013.

Um, right here in Franklin, Tennessee.

Right here in Franklin. We actually planted, uh, one church in East Nashville in the morning, and we planted, uh, in Franklin in the evening. So we planted two churches on the same day.

Yeah.

And, um, it's been a real ride, I tell you. So, um, we planted these two churches, and then, uh, two years into our story, uh, a church that I used to be the youth pastor in, from 15 years earlier. John Tyson and I were the youth pastors at the People's Church. Their pastor, uh, resigned, uh, retired, transitioned out of that role. And the elders came to me and they said, you know, would you be interested in merging our churches together? And I thought, that sounds very difficult. I don't know if I really want to do that. And Brandy and I prayed about it. We had a fleece of a number of really specific things And not only were these things that the elders would have to agree to, these were things that I was never going to tell them they needed to agree to. These were things that they had to suggest. It was things like changing the name of the church and, you know, adopting our mission and vision and values and all of these different things which I was never going to suggest. And then we prayed about it, and then the next day one of the elders said, you know what we need to do? And he just mentioned all of the things that were on that list. And we just knew, okay, we are gonna have to walk this path. And it's been remarkable, Jon, like the way that God has prospered and blessed. It's been, you know, we were talking, we started on Easter Sunday, right? And I think we had about 200 people. On Easter Sunday. And this past Easter we had 22,000 people. And so God is kind of 100.

That's remarkable.

You know, like what has happened in these last 11 years now.

But I think the thing that's so remarkable to me is, you know, Paul said when a man and a woman are joined together and become one, he said, this is a great mystery. Only God can do that, right? Yeah. When you put two churches together with two different DNAs, only God can join them. That's right. Make them one. And that's why I would I think you were quite wise to say, God, all these conditions need to be met and it needs to be so miraculous to me that I know it's the right thing to do. And now look at the fruit of it. That's right. Just 10 years later. Yeah, that's remarkable when you think about it.

There's definitely been many, many moments throughout these last— this last decade where it's just like God has opened a door that no man could have opened. No persuasive words, no influence. It's just a move of God. And no one can get credit for it. It's not clever leadership. It's not strategic thinking. It is just God opening a door.

But God has gifted you, and you are a very good leader. And I want to say that as somebody that watches from the outside or is a part of the church, you are a phenomenal leader, and your team reflects you so well. And so I just want to thank you for the way you've served our entire community. It's been remarkable. Well, thank you for saying that. You wrote a book, and this book really has my interest. You just recently put— and I'll tell everybody the name of the book after I ask the question— but you just recently put your entire church on a digital fast. Yes. And saw some remarkable outcomes. Yes. And that's why you wrote it in a book. Let's talk about it. Why would you choose to write an entire book on something that you put your church through?

Yeah. So we, we take the first 21 days of the year and have a season of prayer and fasting. And fasting is probably the most neglected spiritual practice of the ancient world. And, uh, you know, people don't want to fast. It's uncomfortable and you get hungry. And so we call our entire church to fast and to really seek the heart of God. And some people in doing that are going, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to fast from social media. And I think That's cool, but that's different from biblical fasting. So I don't want to dilute what biblical fasting actually is, but I'm really intrigued by the other idea too. So what I said to the church is this year we're going to do a fast like we have the previous years. We're going to be fasting from food and we're going to have an increased focus on seeking the kingdom and, and seeking the heart of God for this brand new year. But we want to also consider doing a digital fast later in the year. So if you want to sort of opt out from food and you want to like, you know, stay off of your phone, look, you can do that. But we're going to do that together as an entire church later in the year. Now, I'd never done it before. I had never known of a church that had done it before, but we experimented with it last year for the first time in the month of May.. And I started reading a bunch of books. I started studying what social psychologists are saying about this. Clearly, you know, these, these smartphones have seeped their way into our lives. You know, the iPhone came out in 2007, right? But it didn't even have an App Store. The App Store came out in 2008. Push notifications came out in 2009. Instagram came out in 2010. So you can see how these devices have sort of seeped their way. They started out being honestly really wonderful, augmenting our lives. Like, this is just joyful technology. The first few years on the iPhone, enhancing our productivity, productivity, um, just, just giving us an ability to be so much more efficient. Honestly, the first couple years of the iPhone were all upside.

Hey everybody, spiritual growth doesn't happen by accident. That's why we here at Messenger International are passionate about equipping equipping you with resources to help you grow in your relationship with God. One tool we hope you'll take advantage of is our free MessengerX app. Inside MessengerX, you'll get access to dozens of full-length courses, sermons, audiobooks, and more, all available to you at no cost. Whatever your goals, whether you're looking to discover your calling, develop deeper intimacy with God, find freedom, or improve your relationships, you'll find resources on MessengerX that will help you get there. Download MessengerX today, create your free account, and dive in. Now back to the podcast.

Fast forward that 16, 17 years. Almost everyone has this sense of dread about how much they are consuming media on their, on their smartphones. In fact, every person that I've ever said, have you ever done a digital detox? They say the same thing. They say, no, but I need to. There's like this collective sense of like, I'm spending way too much time on this. And so as a pastor, I am concerned about people's mental health, their social relational health, and their spiritual health. And it is very difficult for them to, to hear the voice of God when every discretionary quiet moment in your life is filled with doom scrolling. It's just filled with visual clutter. It's, it's, it's like the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy, Jesus said in John 10. And I've come that you may have life. Well, the reality is the enemy is, is stealing our time, killing our joy, and destroying our relationships, you know. And, and, and really it's all through what has become a digital appendage. It's attached to us all the time. Most people, 91% of people have their phone with them all the time. That means that the last thing they look at before they go to sleep and the first thing they reach for when they wake up in the morning is this smartphone.

So can I put a pause in that? Yes. I'm going to bring you back to 1984. 1984, Lisa and I, our job was to take care of the guest speakers that came to our church. And our church is one of the most well-known churches in the United States. We had every well-known speaker in the world coming. One of them was a man named Dr. Lester Sumrall. Now, Dr. Lester Sumrall was probably one of the most feared ministers. Like, remember when Samuel came to town, everybody trembled. Yeah, when Dr. Sumrall came to town, everybody trembled. Well, I, he, for some reason, he just loved me. Now you gotta remember I'm in my mid-20s.

He, everyone loves you, John.

No, no, no, no, no. I wish that was. That's not true. So anyway, he just said to me one day, he said, because he was coming in a couple times a year, and He said, "I wanna have breakfast with you and your wife tomorrow morning." I said, "Sure, Dr. Sumrall." So we went to the hotel and we had went down to the restaurant and he's sitting there and he says to Lisa, 'cause Lisa at that time is working for Elizabeth Arden makeup company and she's a rep for 8 states. He goes, "Lisa, you wanna know what I would have done if I wasn't in ministry?" She goes, "What?" He goes, "I would have been a perfumer." And he goes, "I got the nose for it." And Lisa and I are like, "Oh my gosh." So he really opened up with us that breakfast. And at that breakfast he said, God has shown me things that are going to happen in the future. And he said, one of the things that God's shown me is I see a day coming when people are going to hold a box in their hand and their life is going to be run by that little box in their hand. Stop it. This is 1984. We didn't even have cell phones. We didn't have flip phones. We didn't have anything. Wow. Okay. And, and we thought, oh, bless his heart, he's off his rocker. He's missed it, you know. But yet, do you know what They just, they just did— I think it was either Time magazine or one of the major universities just did a poll. 100— over 164 million Americans. So we're talking about over 50% of the American population. Their number one thing they deal with is anxiety. Yeah. Why anxiety? Because of everything they're getting out of here. This is running their life. The anxiety is what's running their life. Okay. I wanted to put a pause on that because I wanted to I want everybody to hear how important what you're saying is and why I really am excited about you being on this, this program.

So continue. Yeah, well, so the latest research has found the general population of Americans— so 92% of Americans have a smartphone— general population, uh, 5 to 7 hours a day. Teenagers, 7 to 9 hours a day screen time.

That's crazy. I mean, 9-hour day. People don't even want to work 8 hours, but go ahead.

It's, it's 9 hours a day. 9 hours a day. You got to ask yourself, what is that doing to people? What is it doing to their social intelligence? What is it doing to their, their comparison? You know, Romans 12 talks about, you know, do not conform to the pattern of this world. I've got to believe there has never been a more powerful piece of technology that is conforming people to the, to the pattern of this world than these smartphones. And so, and, and people are collectively feeling it, you know, as opposed to like 2010 where everyone's like, these are great. Now there's this, there's this sense even among teenagers, I think these things might be taking from me more than they're actually giving. And, uh, you know, you start to look at the, the statistics on on, uh, depression and suicide and cutting, um, particularly among teenage girls. Teenage girls are even more than teenage boys. I mean, teenage girls on social media during the, the years of puberty, it, it's turned out the research is now finding that that is dangerous. So, so the brain develops a lot in utero, of course. The next time the brain really starts to develop and change and synapses are firing and of that is during puberty, you know. So this is roughly from age of 11 to 13. If there is social media, if these kids have social media during the time of that hyper brain development, it is, it is destructive, has the power to be very, very destructive. And things— Instagram is actually the worst, the research shows, because you've got these young girls who are looking— it's so superficial, right? You're looking at bodies and makeup, and, and, and, and people's value has been reduced to their external appearance.

Yeah.

And that they are projecting a highlight reel of their lives which is not real and, and, and Photoshopped, and they're comparing that with what they know of their own lives, and they're filled with insecurity and inferiority, and they have this what is now known as obsessive comparison disorder, and, um, it is wreaking havoc. And that is why suicide rate is up 2.5 times now.

It's, it's, it's really, really— it's not just teenage girls. I had a pastor, okay? There was two lead pastors that committed suicide a couple of years ago. And I had a lead pastor who has over 5,000 people in his church say to me, John, I feel the pressure. And he said, where it's coming from is my screens, the Instagram. He said, because I'm seeing what everybody else is doing and I feel like I'm so far behind. Yeah. But anyway, it's not just teen, but, but the fact about the, the fresh firing of the brain between 11 and 13, that's remarkable. Yes. Because that's when they're really getting in deep. Yes. But keep going.

I don't— Okay. So what we decided is what would it look like if we actually went on a journey together as a church? So social scientists call the problem with smartphones a collective action problem. What that means is that everyone knows that these devices are having a detrimental impact on our mental health, but no one wants to individually step away from it all because they're going to get left out of everything. You know, a kid's going to show up at school, everyone's going to be laughing about an in-joke, and they're going to be the only ones that didn't know about it because they're the only ones that are not on a platform of some sort. So, so people know that this is problematic, except— and yet no one individually wants to step back from it for fear of missing out. So, um, what we decided to do as a church is we thought, well, what if we all go on a journey together? What if grandparents, parents, teenagers— what if teenagers' friend group, what if their small group is all doing this together? Instead of one person saying, I'm going to step back from my digital consumption, instead of them doing it by themselves, all their friends are doing it too. And so we decided to— and I got a lot of this from a collection of different sources on what would it look like to do a digital fast. I'm not suggesting that someone takes a hammer and smashes their smartphone, right? This is not you have a smartphone or you don't. It is looking at the apps on your phone through the lens of distraction versus utility. Not all apps are equal, right? Right. You don't, you don't open the calculator app on your phone and play with it for 45 minutes, right?

Right.

So you got to think about what are the distraction apps. So the distraction apps typically are social media, they are news, they are games, they are video apps like YouTube. And if your job will allow it, take, take email off your phone as well, because these are the wormholes that are in on your phone, right? These are the apps that you look at when you pull up at the lights and you're waiting in traffic and you grab your phone and you start doomscrolling on something, right? The goal would be remove all of those apps for a 40-day period and reduce your phone down to a utility device. Utility is making phone calls, texting people, using your GPS, using your calendar. These are all of the things that assist your life without distracting your life, correct? So we want people— we want to reduce distraction and then And we also wanna reduce attraction if we can. And one of the ways to do that is you grayscale your phone. And so you can remove all the color from your phone and it just becomes a black and white device. And you're deliberately trying to make it less enticing for yourself to numb yourself, to steal all your distraction, right? And so when I do that, what flies through my mind, John, over and over again throughout the day is the world is in color. The world is beautiful. This is not in color and this is not the world. This is not the real world. And so you're deliberately trying to turn down distraction, turn down attraction. And then we want people to turn up devotion. So this is not putting down— just putting down something. It is picking up something as well. And so this book leads people on a 40-day journey that is 4 10-day increments, right? The first is to detach. We want to invite you to detach from your phone and by removing all these distraction apps and you do it with all your friends as well and do it with your whole, your whole family should do it together.

Right? Right.

So when you feel a little jittery on day 3, you kind of like you're laughing about a little bit and you're like, all right, you know, let's go. You're detoxing. Exactly right. So legitimate detox. So we want people to, to detach from it. Right. The second 10 days is we want people to discover. What you will do is you'll start to discover feelings that you didn't know you had because you were numbing yourself with your phone. You'll start to discover things going on in your family and in your relationships and with your friends and with other people. You'll start to discover the voice of God afresh because your mind is not so cluttered with useless pieces of information. So that's the second 10-day period. The third 10-day period is to delight. And what happens is when you get 20 days into this, it's like rebooting your senses, your eyes, your ears, your touch, your taste. It all feels new again. And wow, I remember I was 20 days into doing this and my 13-year-old daughter wanted me to watch her bounce on the trampoline. And so I said, sure. You know, at this point I wasn't carrying my phone around in my pocket at my house anymore because I used to do that all the time. It was just with me all the time. Right, right. I had it in a drawer and I was just at home. And so, so I go outside and I'm barefooted and I can feel the grass under my feet. And for whatever reason, like, I can feel the grass under my feet. It's like I'm alive, you know? And then I look at the sky and it's about to be sunset and it looks incredible. I can smell the air.. And then I just hear the sound like it's in high definition of my daughter squealing and giggling and saying, watch me, Daddy, watch me, Daddy. And I had this conscious thought, John, this is delightful. This is a better life. Who knew that I was substituting the beauty of this life for the artificial promise?

It's almost like The Matrix.

It's like The Matrix. It really is. Yes, yes. I took the red pill. I got unplugged. And all of a sudden I'm looking at my daughter and I'm just thinking, I'm so thankful to God that I'm her dad. I'm so thankful for this moment. I'm so thankful that there's air pulsating in my lungs. Like, it's so good to be alive. That's the third 10-day period. The final 10-day period is to determine. And this is, I want to determine after these 40 days, what is my plan going to be? How do I re-engage? At what degree do I want to re-engage? On Netflix, there is this lady named Marie Kondo, and she's famous for teaching people to purge and clean out their closets. I don't know if you've seen this or not.

I have actually. And so— One of my daughter-in-law's really into it.

All into it?

OK.

So what she does is— is she encourages people to hold a piece of clothing and ask the question, does this spark joy? And if you say no, then you throw it out. If you say yes, then you keep it. So I would encourage people to take the distraction apps on their phone and ask yourself the question, does having Instagram on my phone spark joy? Does having TikTok on my phone spark joy? Does Facebook on my phone or Snapchat or whatever it is, do this spark joy? Or am I better to interact with these platforms on a desktop computer? Or am I better to interact with these platforms on a laptop? Because it allows me to put them back in their place instead of them taking over my life. I'm curious, what'd you do with YouTube? Um, so I didn't have it during the fast.

Yes.

Uh, I put YouTube back on my phone after the fast because I listen to content when I'm driving.

So that's, that's me in the gym. I'm always listening to content on YouTube. I was just curious about that one.

Well, you know, and everyone works out their own thing, you know. So YouTube is not harmful for me. I don't— right. You know, it's honestly, it's usually sermons that I'm listening to, you know, or as with me.

And, you know, I'm—

and when I need to repair something in my house, I real quick go to YouTube. Exactly. So, you know, usually, you know, whenever I'm driving, commuting, running, exercising, whatever, I want to stimulate my heart and my mind. And it's usually sermons. And so it's not a destructive thing. I don't watch cat videos, you know. So, I mean, I don't— I don't scroll. I don't doom scroll. But I can tell you this, when Instagram has been on my phone, it's just like this candy that's just beckoning you to come in all the time. And I'm just best not to have it.

Okay. What are some of the results you saw in the entire church?

I was amazed because I was a little nervous about doing the whole thing. First of all, I was thinking, are people going to say you're nuts for bringing this into a church space? You know, like, this is out of your lane, bro. You know, like, why would you be doing that? I feel a little insecure about that. You know, I felt like some people like, just teach the Bible, dude. You know, like, like, you know. So I was hesitant about that. I was also a little worried that people weren't even going to do it. 'cause they were like, "Ah, you know, my smartphone's my whole life. I don't wanna give it up. I don't wanna give up social media." I was a little nervous they wouldn't do it. What I found is that most people wanna do a fast, wanna do a detox at some point. They just need a leader. They just need someone to give them— They need a leader. They're like, "Here's the date.

Here's when we're gonna do it." Okay, so detach. Discover. Discover. Let me, let me do it. The next one is discover. The next one. No, wait a minute.

Third is discover, isn't it?

No, no. Detach, discover, delight, determine. Determine. What are some of the stories? I love the story you just gave about feeling the grass, the air. What are some of the stories, one or two, that just really touched your heart that you heard from church members on discover?

So discover. What I hear largely is, is parents of teenagers. And it's, you know, the funny thing when we, when we're, when we are attached to these screens, it's often the things that we don't even know about. It's your teenage daughter who's walking through the room and she's weeping, but you didn't see that she was weeping. And so, you know, because you're, you're watching something that means infinitely less than the fact that your daughter is upset and something is on her heart, right?

Yeah.

And so I heard many, many stories of that. I heard many stories of parents, particularly in the discover phase, parents going, you know what, it is very easy for me to look at my teenagers and say, you need to get off your phones. But I'm realizing that I'm the one that has been modeling this and they have essentially been mimicking my behavior. I have been modeling. It's like the 3 M's. You hear sometimes I've been modeling this. They've been mimicking me, and then I get mad at them. And it's sort of the height of hypocrisy. I realize that I'm the one that has a problem and my children are simply copying what I do. That's what I discovered when all of a sudden I didn't have these anymore.

So I wrote about this in one of the books that I wrote. It's called A Heart Ablaze. And the opening chapter, I shared how I was at a church in a particular city. In North Carolina. And it's not a massive city like Charlotte or Raleigh, but it's a big city. And I was at the end, I'd done like a weekend for them. And the Spirit of God spoke to my heart and said, there's been a ceiling for churches in this city that no church can grow past 2,000. Wow. And I said, God just showed me that the only way this is gonna be broken, this ceiling, is a fast. Wow. And I said, but it's not a, it's not a food fast. I said, it's, it's a, it's a digital fast. No kidding. I literally said it's— but I said TVs, because TVs back in that, in those days. So the pastor jumped on it and got up and said, we're going to do this for 40 days. Yes. Well, kids start— we're going making C's and D's, start making A's and B's. Wow. Fathers started reuniting with their family. Marriages started getting healed. And they had a move of God. And that church doubled in size within the next 2 years. Wow. They went to 4,000 people. Wow. And that was when I first saw this happen. And I believe that when Lester Sumrall said to me that people's lives were going to be controlled by the box, I don't think— I don't think for the first time in my life today since hearing him say that, I used to think it was like their emails saying, hey, we're doing this and that and that. He was— I now see today what you've said because you've opened my— God's used you to open my eyes. Their lives are going to be controlled, not in a good way, in a bad way. And it— I don't think he alluded it being good, but it's a much worse way. Yes. By the fears, anxieties. That's right. That it's putting in people's lives. When you look at the 164 million people, the number of thing— and I think about what Jesus said, men's hearts are going to fail them for what's coming on the earth. What's coming on the earth is just— I've never had this much information of what's coming on the earth that I do right now. And I used to think people are going to die of heart attacks because they see what's coming. No, your heart, you're supposed to guard with all diligence because out of it flow the forces of life. That's right. So men's hearts are going to fail them. It's not a heart attack. It means now your, your life center is shut down. Right. Right. And that's what the enemy wants for the church.

Yeah, I think, I think most people like sort of to your point, most people think I control my life through my phone. But the truth is, your life is controlled by your phone. You know, we think that we're using it, but it's actually using us.

Okay. This is so important. And I just can't even tell you how honored I am that we get to share this with our listeners. Darren, where can people get this book?

So you can get it at Amazon. Okay.

It's available there.

The Digital Fast. TheDigitalFast.com has a bunch more information on there. Pastors want to lead their church through this, yes sir, then, um, that we've made a way to, to make this book available in bulk at a highly reduced rate, like 60% off. Outstanding. And so I have a couple of churches that I'm going to be doing this, leading them through this, uh, in the summer, and, um, and, and they're buying at bulk so that everyone can use the book as a guide, as a tool to go through a 40-day period. And so thedigitalfast.com has more information about that. And then you can buy it on Amazon or if you want to buy it in bulk, there's a bunch of links.

Well, you know, I'm just going to be open with everybody. I brought this down for our spring family spring break down, down to the beach, and I left it down there by accident. It's still down there, but I'm about to go on a 3-week sabbatical. And guess what's going to help me prepare for that is this. And I'm just so thankful that you wrote this book. Is there any final thoughts that you want to share about this? I mean, please. Yeah, I'm not saying that we need to wrap. I'm saying, Darren, if there's anything else that I've missed by not asking the right questions, please share.

Well, the final thing I would say is that 100% of people who have participated in this have been glad they did. No one has said, you know, I just really wish that I could have spent more time doomscrolling on cat videos. Like, no one regrets doing this. Everyone feels the benefit of this, whether they do it with absolute purity, whether they cheat a couple of times. Like, any way that someone does this, we are bringing their digital media consumption to the forefront of conversation, and everyone starts to just be aware of it. You see, most of the time we function on autopilot, right? Most of the time we're functioning, we're just numbing ourselves with these devices, right? And so now teenagers and parents are talking about how are we going to do this as a family. There's the power is, is kind of unveiling how hidden all of this is and to kind of say, look, I'm giving way too much of my time to this device and it is not fruitful and I want to live differently than this. And so you want to reboot your life to begin with and then work out what does it look like from there. 100% of people who have done it have been glad they did.

Okay, let's, let's do something, guys. Let's, let's do opposite peer pressure. Like, guys, tell your college friends— we have so many young people that listen, right? Tell your college friends, are you kidding me? You're not going to do this digital fast with us? And then get this, get them to realize that they have a life to live and that life is not going to be controlled by the anxiety, the fear, the fear of missing out. The— there's so much more that comes from this little box. That Dr. Sumrall saw back in 1984.

Think about it.

It's incredible. God tried to warn us way back then, and I'm glad that you heard the heart of God to be able to say to the church, hey, let's, let's walk in the life of God. Let's enjoy this world. God gave us this world to enjoy as well as to be pilgrims reaching people, the lost in this world. You're not enjoying this world that he He gave us so freely all the beauty. I mean, you know, Darren, you and I, we both like the beach. And when we're down at the beach, you walk along the shore, you're just like, look at what God has made. Thank you, God. But, you know, it's more than beach. I walk through the trees of Franklin and I go, look at this beauty. Look at the green grass. Yeah, but that goes down because when I was a boy, that's what captured my attention was the beauty of creation. I didn't realize that I was worshiping God who made the creation. I was really enjoying what he made. I just thought, man, what a beautiful world we live in. Yeah, I don't think kids are getting that today because they're so bound up by their screens. And so thank you so much for writing this. Thank you for coming on the program. I appreciate you so much. And is there— can you close this out by praying for people? Yes, right now. I, I think you got a lot of people right now that are really wanting to go on a digital fast. Pray for that experience. Yes. That they experience what you experienced.

Yes, let's pray right now. So God, you know every single person who is listening right now, and I pray that you would speak to them, give them clarity. Lord, I pray that you would give them the courage to actually step in to do something like the digital fast. And Lord, I pray that you would turn up your voice during that period. You give them ears to hear, eyes to see. I pray that they would find themselves reconnect with the Spirit of God in a moment like this. And I pray that the outcome is that their lives would never be the same. It would be a before and after moment. And I pray, God, that you would bless them for their, for their obedience. You would bless them for their courage and that your hand would be upon them as they step into doing this. And this is our prayer, and we pray it in Jesus' name.

Amen. Darin, thank you so much. Thanks so much. It's an honor to have you on.