What do we really want for our lives?
Do we want what God wants or what we want?
This is so hard but it’s so true:
To love the life God has given us isn’t a matter of collecting the laudation and likes of men, but finding security in smallness, knowing you are seen in hiddenness and rising in service toward greatness.
Yeah, tell me —
With every Facebook ad popping up on how to make it big on the Internet, sometimes?— you wish you’d just have what it takes to make that one big break, that you’d go viral someday, be noticed by someone huge, and be loved by all somehow.
We secretly want what social media promises — others’ admiration.
We somewhat wish we were the ones who have it all. But if we were to live to a different soul rhythm, we would somehow need to tune in to a different life purpose.
I cut up the watermelon.
The kids and husband are all gathered around the kitchen island.
My husband — he’s all man and all boy.
He sinks his teeth into those juicy-red slices, drips all those sweetness, and sends his wife scurrying around for a wipe…(sigh).
He checks his phone, breaks into the widest grin, and laughs out loud as he high-fives our three kids and flashes his screen to me.
I know what it was — his YouTube video!
Somehow it has gone “viral”.
Somehow he has been thanked every day from everywhere around the world, and his video commented on and viewed by some ridiculous 1.9 million times for his tips on ‘how to unclog the toilet without a plunger — yeah, you heard it right.
Unclogging our own toilets multiple times, he has somehow become an expert in that department.
And for all the effort it has taken, he told me: “It’s crazy, I get more thanks for this than in my real job!”
His real job, however, isn’t in unclogging toilets.
I smile.
We live in such a different time and a different world today. It seems like anybody can become somebody and any commoner a celebrity on the Internet.
And perhaps it’s this lure that we can trend on Twitter, be Facebook famous, and jack up on likes on Instagram that hits us all in our sorest spot —
We all want a slice of that.
We want to be seen, to be liked and to be known.
I am swallowing hard. Would our souls really be satisfied with merely that?
Is significance really derivable from becoming an Internet sensation? From posting what pitches and promotes, from having content that circulates faster and wider than the speed of light? Is that our mantra for success today?
What is it that we really want?
Doesn’t elusive fame also easily extinguish our flame?
What do we tell our sons, when we see them getting excited with social media “likes”, when they get delirious about becoming Internet influencers, when what their souls really crave for — is actually attention?
The right kind of attention — the unending, unyielding, unchanging, forever-loving kind of affection.
“We ache for something we cannot name”
(Lauren Slater)
Jesus shows us the truth about gaining and losing our soul — that in His Kingdom of God, everything is upside-down and inside-out.
To be big, you must be small.
To be first you must be last.
Those who want to lead must lower themselves to serve.
And I’m wondering — instead of using our social spaces to make it all about us, can we:
Use our position, place, and platform to pronounce the greatness of God, proclaim the good of this world, and promote love to the everyday precious people passing our paths.
Because there is everyday greatness that receives no glamour but is undeniably, deeply glorious.
Why let the delusion of fame rob us of what truly flourishes our souls?
The like and love of men may rise and wane. People will one day love you and another day loathe you — but it’s the wisdom of the aged that we learn not to allow people’s compliments to get over our heads and people’s criticism to get into our hearts.
“Never allow men’s compliments to get into our heads, and their criticism to get into our hearts”.
Source Unknown
Jesus offers us something better than stages and spotlights.
A seat where you don’t have to try to make it in this life because in Him you already have a place.
You already have a home, you already belong, you already have made it. You are already known and loved!
And when you catch Him there touching the lepers yet totalling no laudation, healing the lame yet hearing no applause;You can receive Him here —- He has already come for you.You have all the attention, affection and acknowledgment that our hearts so long for.
He promises we can live with our pitchers full so we can live our lives filling others’ up.
So why not let Him scaffold our shaky social scape so we can soar with security and live with significance, perhaps that may just give us our full satisfaction today…
Hey, Friends, I’m so privileged to walk this sacred journey of life with you. Interested to get a free daily planner where you can set your priorities right? Here below:
(My deepest thanks to @timkwokphoto for capturing amazing pictures #2-#10)