I’m disengaging with social media for a little while. All of the back and forth liberally laced with vitriol and disdain for dissenting opinions leaves me anxious and disheartened. In layman’s terms: mean people suck.

It’s not just the arguing and finger-pointing that’s got me down. I also have a weird compulsion to see what lies the wolves in Lululemon clothing are spreading today. So I go to their pages and cold rage washes over me because yep, they’re still promoting sin and passing blasphemous lies off as gospel truth, and yep, the crowds are still eating it up and asking for more.

Top that all off with people suffering around the world, like really suffering, and some for their faithfulness to Christ. Seeing how few people care has also got me down. Good thing Biden didn’t tweet something mean about the Taliban. They’d be all over him.

For me, social media is a negative thing because it sucks me in and I emerge an hour later with a head full of the world’s nonsense and a heart full of negative emotions. There is not enough benefit from the three encouraging posts to merit scrolling through fifty that induce fear, sadness, or anger. What we consume, we become. I long to be more like Christ, so I need to consume his word and become a woman who walks in the confidence and hope of the gospel.

So, I suppose I need to be in the Word much more and on the ‘Book much less.

This morning I was reading through 1 Corinthians 1 and 2. Paul reiterated that people who are not saved physically cannot understand the wisdom of God. To those who are perishing, the message of the cross is foolishness (1:1). But we have the mind of Christ (2:16) through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and to us the cross speaks of the power of God to save us.

Only through Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection do we have the hope of heaven, where “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him” (2:9). Because Jesus rose from the dead, proving he was God, we also believe him when he says we have everything we need for life and godliness through the Spirit. He is enough to sustain us through this life and his faithfulness assures us we will spend eternity by his side in paradise.

These truths must be what inform how we live our lives every day. Not just when we’re feeling extra Christian-y. We must be ready to share the hope we have with others at all times, because that’s what God has commanded us to do. This life is not about us! It’s not about making sure we have perceived safety and never experience discomfort. Man, that’s not what the flesh wants to hear, but it’s the truth! The Christian life must be about abiding in God and allowing him to use us for his kingdom however he wants. The life lived in service to Christ may not be easy or glamorous, but if we are living in obedience there’s no better place to be.

God, please bless our efforts to truly follow after you with all that we have, holding nothing back. You are our great treasure and reward, our safety and our shield. In you alone will we be truly satisfied.

P.S. I definitely used a term from Arrested Development as my title

P.P.S. I also definitely peeked at Facebook while I was writing this and got angry because a prosperity gospel teacher was encouraging people to speak millions over themselves in the name of Jesus. And I had to call him out. Grrr.