Read a Little Less...

If you have a Facebook account, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. If you don't, lean in. In the wonderful world of social media, there is a land called Facebook. In the land of Facebook, there is Main St., more commonly known as the "NewsFeed." This is where Facebook users can "share" things that they find on the internet, and other Facebook users can scroll through and see the things that other people have shared. The new cool things to share these days are blog posts with list-advice. I log into my Facebook account, go to my NewsFeed, and see at least ten shares of these stupid blog posts. I'm not kidding. It's serious stuff like, "16 Rules for a Christian Marriage," "8 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Get Married Before 23," or more trivial stuff like, "10 Reasons Why Avocado is the Best Food Ever." And who is writing these? Mostly children between the ages of 20 and 30 (there, I said it) who think they've lived enough life to give the rest of us pithy advice on things like marriage, our career, or how we construct our perception of ourselves. And avocados, of course.

 

My problem is really not with the content (although it's a little problematic when I see these two blog posts floating around the NewsFeed on the same day: "17 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Marry Young" and "11 Reasons Why Getting Married Young Was the Best Decision Ever." Uh. What?). My problem is with the fact that we're missing out on life. While we sit inside and read blog posts upon blog posts, the Kingdom of God is knocking at our doors.

I truly appreciate the efforts of all the dating/career/health bloggers out there, and especially appreciate the fact that they're writing something. But meaning no disrespect, I haven’t read a single post that told me something I didn’t know. Beyond that, I have my own Bible that I find to be far more reliable than my fellow twenty-somethings’ “life experiences.” It’s nothing personal. It’s just that I don’t understand why we’re caught up with all the intricacies of the "right way" to do literally every single thing you can possibly do in life right now.

Here's my point: the Jesus I know in scripture isn’t caught up in the past or the future. He is a present savior, professing the salvation that comes through God in each present moment, consistent with each breath I take in and release. My preoccupation with lists of tens and twelves and twenties that cleverly surmise what I need to look for in a future husband or how I should save my money so I can retire at the age of 40 is a pretty good clue that my faith in God dismisses my present blessings and opportunities and reaches into a pseudo-reality that I’ve created for myself. It promotes the idea that God will be faithful later, when we get all the things we want, the way we want them.

I have a home that I live in. God is faithful. I have a job. God is faithful. I have clothes and food and friends and family and God is faithful. Where is our preoccupation with God’s constant faithfulness? Where are the extensive lists of reasons why God is faithful now, daily, reminding why we should just be thankful? Evidently it’s waiting for us in some distant, opaque future that may or may not come to be.

This world is not my home. Who am I to bide my time waiting for a life that fits all my expectations, and waiting to rejoice in God's faithfulness until then? When I walk out my door each day to meet the Kingdom of God, I fully expect to meet all of the people who I need to meet. I don’t recall being promised specific little blessings as a reward for my pursuit of the Kingdom. I do recall being promised some kind of persecution.

Maybe the country we live in won’t provide the kind of persecution we think we deserve as disciples of Jesus. Some might chastise us for this. Well, in the same way, Jesus did not command us to seek first persecution. Jesus commanded us to seek first the Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. The thing is, we aren’t supposed to seek first the Kingdom so all these things will be added unto us. We’re just supposed to seek first the Kingdom. This world would be a different place if we could just leave it at that. Life is not a list. The Kingdom of God is not a list. It is vibrant and fluid and everywhere. It needs eyes and hearts that can pull themselves away from the computer screen and see the world.

Erin E. Daugherty

Abilene Christian University