Does it ever feel like the world is on fire, and everyone is screaming bloody murder?
Anyone else?
Maybe it's just me...
But I don't think it is.
There is an endless line of people, organizations, and companies competing for your attention constantly. And why? To make a profit. This is how society functions, and this isn't new. It has always been like this, and while the form differed, and even the ripple effects of that form changed, the function remained essentially the same. Money is needed to meet basic human needs. We must make money to survive. We must prove ourselves profitable to be able to function effectively in society. The monetization of this effectiveness has changed in form, but not in function.
Society has trained us to optimize efficiency, which is almost always what is most profitable. If you have to choose between going to college or entering the work force upon high school graduation, the centerpiece of this discussion is money. Make more money now, or gain an education to make more money later? The same is true with many other major life decisions, including getting married, having kids, and other major life decisions.
This does not stand in contrast with being human. In fact, it is in our very nature to create such systems to be self-sustainable. No one wants to live as a slave to the system, gleaning off of the leftover crops or surviving off of government hand-outs. That is not the ideal, and most rational people would agree with that.
However, no matter what we do, as long as we are participating in society, someone will always want something from us that we may or may not be able to give. Social media wants our attention. Companies want our money. Politicians want our votes. Friends and family want our love and loyalty. These social forces are always at play and have always been at play, but in the dawn of technology, the voices have gotten louder and louder, maybe not literally, but certainly in their range of influence. First, you influence those within earshot, then within sight. Then advances in technology over time extended that range from who was physically standing near you to anyone able to click a button or scroll to see or hear your message.
Now, we are not only hearing what people around us think and feel, but what people all over the world, from Tennessee to Tanzania, are thinking and feeling. It's just like being in a crowded restaurant. The more people there are, the louder you have to talk to be heard over the noise, and that's without the restaurant even playing music to fill the space. When there is music playing over the speaker, or a house band playing from the front, the louder you have to talk to be heard over the ever-increasing noise.
So everyone is screaming.
So much so that the truth has become indistinguishable in the wash of sound.
Pursuing truth and justice in the world today seems like an impossible task. No one knows how to tell truth from lies anymore because the very fondations of what makes something obectively true have been called into question. So who do we trust?
No one.
So we feel the need to reduce to isolation. Living in society is far too chaotic, and we just need to unplug and escape. You can only trust yourself in this world, so shut out everything else and just do you.
That's what we are coming to, and in many ways, we have already arrived, and it gets scarier every day.
So where do we find hope in this world of screaming? How do we turn down the volume on life to find the truth, if such a thing exists?
I just finished watching a documentary on Netflix called "The Social Dilemma" and that is where most of these musings are stemming from. Tech giants for an hour and a half are sounding the alarm on the inevitable destructiveness of social media to the fabric of society, from the deteriorationIn of individual self-worth to the monetization of sowing international political discourse. At the end, it seems the only solution to the social media problem is to reform and regulate the platforms. A human solution to a human problem. However, there are some that do not view this as merely a human problem. Some outright admit that this has reached existential crisis status. So now, if that's the case, an existential crisis requires an existential solution.
The fact is, we cannot put our trust in humans. We are finite, fallible, fragile beings, and there is no such thing as a perfect human.
But a long time ago, there was one, and he died a brutal death before he reached 40.
His name was Jesus.
He said the love of money was the root of all evil
He said it was harder for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle
He turned the tables of those who were trying to make a profit off in the Lord's house of prayer
He cared about the poor, the abandoned, the outcast, and the sick. The people who are not profitable to society, He said they mattered.
This is upside down from what most of the world is screaming every day.
We are taught to be independent, to provide for ourselves, to help ourselves before we help others. It's like we are all on a plane. You board, you sit in your seat, you put your things away, you barely make eye contact with the person in the seat next to you, and you mind your own business. Should the plane fall from the sky, you are even told to put on your mask and life jacket before helping others.
But what would it look like if everyone thought of others as greater than themselves? What if we all went out of our way to help others before helping ourselves? Everyone would certainly be provided for. So why don't we do this? Some tried to create new political systems to ensure this equality, but unfortunately, the human condition is bent towards selfishness. These systems also do not account for the immense diversity of humanity, making sustaining cultural and religious practices contrary to the political efforts, which makes them difficult to sustain and in great contrast to the Kingdom to which Jesus so often refers.
So maybe the answer to the problem is not overhauling and entire social system. Maybe it's just turning our eyes from our screens to God. Maybe instead of filling ourselves with garbage for no other reason than to pass the time, we should fill ourselves with what is good, what is holy, what is beautiful and lovely. Maybe we should turn to scriptures filled with the depth and breadth of human experience eclipsed by the glory of God. Maybe instead of letting other people tell us how we should think and feel, we should let God, the creator of all things, the source of all truth and knowledge, inform our thoughts and feelings. Maybe we should pour God's goodness over ourselves to fill in the flaws we see in ourselves and let Him make us complete.
This is what it means to renew your mind.
This is what it means to align your heart and mind with the Father's.
This is what it means to live your life in surrender, admitting that you cannot do anything except through what God has given you, from the gifts of His Spirit to the very air in your lungs.
The age of isolation that we have recently found ourselves in against our will has revealed several things. At first, it helped remind us what is really important: genuine human connections. Then, as time went on, it went on to reveal countless flaws in society as we had time to ponder the state of the world, and the grip of technology on our lives has been grown to an inescapable level. It became our source of everything from entertainment and news to work and basic necessities of survival. In many ways, it became our god in this sense. We believe it is our provider, our sustainer, and our safety. But it is not and will never be our creator, our Father, or our Lord.
Information will never replace the relationship we have with the God of the universe. Science will never be an adequate replacement for truth. Technology will never be a sufficient alternative to living life as it was intended to be lived. There is an end to all of these things and a limit in time and space, but God is limitless. He is endless, boundless, infinite, and He reveals Himself to us in infinite ways in our minuscule existence on this Earth.
And in the midst of all of the shouting,
He is whispering.
God gave us a gift this year, an excuse to put our lives on pause and listen to His whisper. That pause looked different for everyone because God whispers differently to everyone. To some, God whispered hope through family, to others He whispered goodness through His timing, He whispered peace through stillness, He whispered joy through the constancy of creation. There is always a whisper because God never stops moving. He never stops trying to draw us nearer through His love for us. So as the world picks up its pace again, don't forget how He whispered, and take that into the days to come because the promise in that whisper will help combat the destruction of the noise.
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