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
Thank you Erin for your comments. Great insight. Terry
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