I love the freshness that the beginning of a year brings! Not only do I have to put more thought when I’m writing the date on a check, I also put more thought into life. What is the purpose? Why do we do what we do? And WHHHYYYY do we live where the wind hurt our faces! (Sorry. Still working through emotions of surviving another winter of -20 degree days.)
If you have been on social media for longer than a hot minute, then I’m sure you have seen people’s “Word for the Year.” It’s typically something inspiring and motivational. I’ll be honest that I haven’t pick a word. (The rebel in me actually LOVES to go against the flow every now and then). But I do have a thought that I believe God has begun to stir in my soul.
It’s the thought of distraction. I live such a distracted life. There is something clamoring for my attention 24 hours a day. And all too often I try to focus on EVERYTHING while accomplishing NOTHING. Not every distraction is a “bad” thing. In fact, many distractions are “good” things.
But this idea of trying to “do it all.”
Multitasking.
Spreading yourself so thin into so many different directions but trying to still excel in all of them.
Being all things to all people.
Looking down at my phone and missing what is happening around me.
Social media is an excellent example. I love interacting with people. I love making people laugh. So with social media, I find myself spending HOURS trying to interact with HUNDREDS of people. (Many of whom, I have never had a personal face-to-face-sit-down-at-a-coffee-shop type of conversation with.) I know their profile picture and what their Facebook wall looks like. But I don’t know THEM. And while I feel the pull to interact with all of my “friends” and impress the general public, I don’t have intentional conversations with very many of them.
I’m being challenged to rethink my view of social media.
We all want to be known. We want someone to notice us. We LONG for community. So what an answer to prayer for many people to get to log in and have access to a wide spread community. We are “known.” We got a “friend request.” We are in a virtual community! But yet, something is missing.
Depth.
The depth of knowing someone deeply. Seeing their emotion in a face to face conversation takes more effort than “liking” a status.
The depth of walking through a painful struggle with someone in person besides the simple “praying for you” comment you can leave on their wall.
The depth that comes from sitting around a table sharing a meal and laughing over a funny story or corny joke.
The depth of having a debate of a very controversial political subject in person. Beyond just bolding arguing your viewpoint on a Facebook thread. But instead, hearing a person’s reasoning for believing one way or another while sitting across from them changes everything.
I miss that.
I’m too distracted with trying to impress hundreds of strangers that I too often let the opportunity for a deep relationship to form with a few close to me.
But the masses are addicting. I won’t deny that I LOVE the adrenaline I get from a post that gets lots of “likes”. I feel important. I feel loved. I’m continually looking down at my phone for those feelings. But it doesn’t last.
What happens when I take the time to sit down with a new friend over coffee and hear their story? When I look up and talk to someone face to face. You better believe I am more invested in that one persons’s life than if i had simply “added them on Facebook” and left our friendship at that.
The few I look up to are life-giving. I may not get the same adrenaline rush as when I get 100 likes on Facebook or Instagram, but my soul is FULL after a face to face conversation.
Who are your “few”? Do you have those relationships right now? Who do you find yourself looking up and across the table to? Or have you substituted the virtual friends you look down at a screen to for them.
What if we spent more time and effort into connecting at a deeper level with a few people than wasting time and effort impressing hundreds of people at a very shallow level?
Can we move beyond always looking down at our phones and start looking up to the faces around us?
I know I’m tired of being distracted. I’m making steps in my life to move away from impressing the crowds i “look down” at to getting back to the basics of connecting with real authentic relationships I “look up” to. In the mean time, however, I’ll post this blog and continually check back to see how many “likes” and “shares” I get.
Join me on this journey of looking up
-Grace
SO SOLID! Thank you for writing this-learning from you, friend!