Social Media in Light of Eternity

Over the past few months, I have evaluated my life and I come up dissatisfied. Unforeseen circumstances have made me step back and ask myself some deep questions about the direction I’m heading. I have sought to live a live with purpose and meaning, but that is hard to do. I see much laxness and not enough conviction.

I find much of what has led me to this place is social media and the tunnel view it has created for what life should be in my heart. And I’m done. I’ve denied it’s power. I’ve told myself I don’t struggle “that much” and that I’m in control of it’s influence on me. It took hold anyway. I’ve talked to quite a few people lately who are in the same boat as me. They thought they were fine, but find when the bandaid is ripped off suddenly, that the world has had more influence on them than they care to admit. We’re confused. When did this happen? How did I waste so much time, thought and energy on something that doesn’t matter. For a lot of us, I think it happened without us realizing. We grew up in a world one way and have watched it become everything it is now. We remember what it was like to have to talk to our friends on the phone and going to bed without a cell phone by our side. In fact, for years mine stayed in my purse in the closet, turned off until morning for most of my teen years. What a different day we live in now. We’ve seen the change, embraced it, grown and adapted to it without much thought. We can do anything, be anything. But inside I think we got lost in it all. I did.

Slowly, the light has crept through and God has gently whispered, “This has more control over you than your pride will admit.” It’s taken a while, but I’m here, admitting I’m influenced, addicted and wasting too much of my time. Over the past few months I’ve allowed these verses to steep in my heart and they’ve wrecked me in the best and worst of ways.

“For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers…” – Acts 13:36

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” – Paul, 2 Timothy 4:7

Man, God’s Word has knocked me squarely between the eyes. It’s cut me to the heart. He’s torn open the curtains to a dusty, dark place I didn’t know I was hiding. Pride. Envy. Selfishness. Covetousness. To be perfectly honest, I have told myself I have been above it all. Maybe Pinterest doesn’t make me want to buy new clothes, but I can’t say I haven’t succumbed to the influences of what is going on around me. I can’t say that my heart hasn’t been secretly full of things I hate. That isn’t what I want. I LONG to live the way Paul and David did, with purpose, fighting each day for the glory of God, not my own name. Read Hebrews 11 for an even more convicting chapter of heroes who suffered much in this life, but gained everything that matters in eternity.

So what does it mean to serve the purpose of God for our generation? What does it look like to be in the world but not of it, to be effective, to be a light for Christ and to have a life that is lived with purpose, that means something? I’ve been asking myself this question for years. I’ve talked to quite a few people lately who are asking the same questions. What does purpose look like in the here and now, especially in regard to social media? What is most like Jesus? How seriously should we take the things online? There is no secret thing to do that will fix it all. I simply have a few truths found in the lives of those who were greatly effective for Christ in their lifetimes.

Don’t be a slave, addict or recluse to the world – be a slave of Christ. We cannot let being a part of this world consume us. We also can’t run, being a recluse and not taking part in our culture. What a dichotomy! How can we straddle the fine line and find the right road? A lot of times I feel sucked into it’s snares or the urge to pull away entirely. What is the right path? Honestly, I feel that will look different for everyone. What I do know is that we should be slaves to Christ, not to the world. (If you haven’t ready Slave by John MacArther, I highly recommend it in regard to this topic.) Like a slave, our only goal in this life is to serve Him. We are not our own, so therefore we cannot have any part of us that belongs to anyone or anything else. Our “happiness” is irrelevant because we should only be concerned with being pleasing to our Master. I have to evaluate my life and ask if this area is slave to Him or something else. This is the mentality to live by day to day.

Stay grounded in the Love of God and our worth in Christ. Nothing else should define us. As believers, we are HIS. We are created by Him and for Him, for His purposes. That is a lot of the word “Him” and also my point. We can sink our feet into the immense love of our God and find incredible security there. The more I truly believe He loves me, the less what anyone else thinks of me matters. There is a reason Paul said “…that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:17-19) His love is powerful. If everything in your life was stripped away, your profiles, closet, house, job, family, etc…who would you be? Do you have that kind of security in Christ, so much so that you need nothing apart from Him? 

Be faithful where you are. Even Paul, the great missionary and apostle started small. He didn’t just travel around speaking to huge crowds all the time. He made a living as a tent-maker. He ministered to the other tent makers and they went on to plant churches. What if he thought he was too good for the other tent-makers around him? There would be no Pricilla and Aquilla or the many believers that resulted from their faithfulness to Christ. Even David, was faithful in watching out for his father’s sheep. It wasn’t a the most honorable job, but he did it with excellence and used the lonely times to cultivate a heart after God, write and sing praises to God.

Find contentment in Christ, seek His fame, not our own. The more I truly believe that Jesus is more than enough for me, that life in Him is full and overflowing, the less I want anything else. When Jesus is my joy, the lives of others don’t effect me. I find I want less. I don’t care about what people say or don’t say, like or don’t like because I am completely and utterly satisfied in Him. Whenever there is that desire for more, stop and look at your heart. How deep is your contentment in Christ? How much do you desire Him to be known and glorified? When I stop to do this, it ALWAYS hurts. I see how I have loved myself, my name, reputation and things that make me feel successful, loved and valued over Jesus. What is even worse is when that doesn’t bother me that much, and I sweep it under the rug as ok. Neither you or I can live like that AND live with purpose for the Kingdom. If our fame, our comfort or our stuff, even inadvertently, is the goal then we will never be effective in this life.

Be ready for every opportunity. Take David for example. Scripture says he was a man after God’s own heart. Where did that start? It began in being faithful in the small things. When his time came to step up, he was ready because he hadn’t wasted any time. He was ready. Timothy’s mentor, Paul, told him to “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season.” (2 Timothy 4:2) In 1 Peter 3:15 it says, “But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect…” If we are going to be effective in life, we have to be ready for every opportunity that comes our way. We probably won’t get a warning or sign. In diligence, it’s our job to prepare our hearts for whatever the Lord has in store for us.

Stamp Eternity on your eyeballs. In the end nothing matters more than eternity with Christ. This is the reality to come! Our lives here are so incredibly brief. They pass like the smoke after blowing out a candle. Poof! It’s gone. And yet, it is so easy to get caught up in things today. My to-do list today. This post today. This trend today. My house today. This comment today. My chaos today. My family today. My pride today. All the things I need today. If those things, today, don’t count for eternity then they don’t matter. Period! Sure, we have to work, do homework, care for the littles, get fed, clothed, etc…but does our attitude in those things show that our eyes are on eternity or merely the here and now? I don’t know about you, but when I get to meet my Master face to face and all my days are laid before Him, I don’t want to be ashamed over how I spent my allotted time. That day is coming! Still, how easily I forget it. Thus, the goal becomes to STAMP ETERNITY ON MY EYEBALLS every day when they open. View every moment in life through the lens of eternity and suddenly things become clear. We see our relationships, our time and talents in a whole new light and deeper purpose is found. I can promise you if you live with eternity always in view, even just for the rest of today, it will change you. Spend time with the Master and ask Him to show you your life in the grand scheme of eternity and it will wreck you.

So, are these things easy to do? Nope, not one bit. I have known these things what seems like forever and doing them is incredibly hard. Keeping Eternity in mind take discipline. Being ready takes a lot of preparation. Finding contentment in Christ means I have to die to myself. Being faithful means that I let God dictate my life, regardless of where or what I will do. Staying grounded in His love means I have to spend time in His Word. Being a slave to Christ means I have to give up everything to follow Him, and that I obey His Word. The question I ask myself, and you my friend, is this – Is it worth it? In the end we will gain everything for merely loosening our grasp over the control these fleeting days. I desperately want to give my utmost to live out my purpose on this earth and hear those beautiful words when I enter Eternity, “Well done, good and faithful servant! Enter into the joy of your Master.”

 “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:12-14)