You stare at your phone, finger ready to start scrolling. The semester’s final assignments loom, your toddler’s been testing limits all day, you’re exhausted from your 9:00 to 5:00, and the evening ahead feels heavy. That familiar anxiety creeps in, pushing you to Instagram’s endless feed, Netflix’s next episode, or Facebook’s theater of other people’s lives.
You’re not alone—the average American spends seven hours a day consuming digital media, often running from a life that feels too overwhelming, too demanding.1 Yet part of us knows there must be a better way than numbing ourselves with distraction. What if our desperate need to escape isn’t wrong, but simply misplaced?
C. S. Lewis puts it this way: “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”2 Our longing for escape points to something legitimate: we’re made for more than this world offers. The question is how to honor this holy discontent rather than dull it.
Jesus shows us the way. When life pressed in, He withdrew from crowds and demands. But notice the difference: His withdrawals deepened His relationship with His Father and disciples rather than distanced from them, clarified truth rather than numbed it, and renewed His purpose rather than avoided it. We mistake withdrawal as running from reality when true escape means stepping from the shallows into deeper waters.
We mistake withdrawal as running from reality when true escape means stepping from the shallows into deeper waters.
The key is not whether we escape, but how. Healthy withdrawal:
1. Connects us, instead of isolating us. Whether through communion with God, meaningful time and conversation with loved ones, experiences in nature, or even intentional regulated use of social media, healthy escape should strengthen our bonds with God and others. Compare this to forms of escapism that may increase our sense of loneliness (see Heb. 10:24, 25).
2. Illuminates truth, instead of numbing it. Whether through Scripture, books, or films, seek engaging media that reveals wisdom for living and draws us to God’s larger story of love and grace. Unlike mindless entertainment that numbs our pain and gradually dulls our moral sensibilities, healthy withdrawal helps us face life with clearer eyes and an awakened heart (see Phil. 4:8).
3. Renews our engagement with reality. Real rest doesn’t just relieve; it restores. We are reminded of why life is worth living. When we escape well, we return to our daily lives with renewed inspiration, seeing beauty and significance in the everyday moments we usually take for granted. True escape doesn’t just help us endure life’s challenges; it helps us embrace them with renewed purpose (see Matt. 11:28, 29).
Next time you feel the urge to escape, pause and ask: Will this form of withdrawal deepen or distance my relationships? Will it fill me or just help me forget? Will it renew my engagement with life or just postpone it? Our desire to escape isn’t wrong—it’s heaven’s echo in our hearts. The choice is whether we’ll dull that sacred longing or let it guide us to what our souls truly seek.
1 Insider Intelligence/eMarketer. (2024). Digital media makes up nearly two thirds of consumers’ total time spent with media. eMarketer, retrieved Feb. 4, 2025, from https://www.emarketer.com/content/digital-media-makes-up-nearly-two-thirds-of-consumers-total-time-spent-with-media.
2 C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (HarperOne, 1952), pp. 134, 135.