Growing up in an insta-world

It frightens me sometimes when I think about the kind of world our little girl will grow up in. Simplicity is scarce. Busy is everywhere. We have sacrificed quality for quick. There is a lot of social and not a lot of personal. I can hardly navigate my own heart through all that is meaningless on the path of purpose, but now I’ll need to teach her to do the same. It is easier than ever before to feel like we are known, “liked” and part of a group. We can present ourselves in whatever way we like and easily hide behind a facade of fake. What’s scary is that in the pursuit of making ourselves bigger and better than we really are, we can actually succeed at it! All the while we are wasting our lives on things that don’t matter in the end. Who we’ve made ourselves will fade, and when we’re gone there won’t be anything of lasting impact left behind. I don’t want to live that way, do you? I want to safeguard my heart and my family’s against wasting our lives, little bits at a time.

There is one thing, however, that I can tell myself and those around me: Know who you are and who you are not. Louie Giglio said it perfectly in the quote pictured above. We are not the center of the universe. We aren’t even supposed to be the star of our own social media profiles. Louie also explains in the book I AM NOT BUT I KNOW I AM, “Jesus became small so that we could reach our highest and fullest potential in Him. He came down to lift us up out of microscopic stories that only get swallowed up in the grave…He gave Himself for us so that we could die to self-fame, self-glory, self-effort, self-centeredness and the self-stories what are so quickly coming to an end.” Knowing His Story and our place in it frees us from a plethora of negative things in our social world that can pull us in. When we are so secure of ourselves in Him we are free from comparison, fear of rejection, jealousy, self-deception, the need to be noticed, judgmental hearts, big heads, dissatisfaction with what we have, feeling a need for fame, pressure to be “liked” and so many other things. What if you never really thought twice about anyone “liking” something you post…ever? When I get on social media, especially Instagram, I see so many people (including myself sometimes) crying out, “Like me! Love me! Accept me!” What’s absolutely ludicrous for the Christ-follower is that the Ultimate Someone already has. And in Him lies true satisfaction for everything we crave.

John the Baptist said it well in John 3:30, “He must become greater; I must become less.” What if we all approached what we “share” with the world with that in mind? What if our goal was to make much of Him? I hope that in all things, I can show our little girl how to do that. I hope to help her on the journey to see who she is in Christ. As I’m preparing for motherhood, my prayer is that my daughter will never try to be someone she’s not. I want her to understand the immense value in her God-created uniqueness. That’s a challenge for me too…practicing what I want to preach. God alone makes us who we are. Knowing that changes everything. We can be completely unapologetic and wholly unashamed of who we are when we have all the acceptance we need in Christ. Hopefully we’ll all be reminded of that when our hearts start to turn to lesser glories. God’s glory is ultimate, lasting and far above all we can comprehend. Let’s get on board with His story instead of our own.