Social Media or Social Worth?

This morning, I had the pleasure of actually waking up at a decent time (aka before noon) and enjoying a peaceful morning. Since I usually don't wake up this early, I didn't know what to do with myself. Initially, I wanted to drive to my favorite coffee shop because a) I like coffee, b) I like some well-spent Jesus time, and c) I like coffee...But then I remembered that my mom was working this morning, which meant I had little brother duty and couldn't leave the house.

But, I couldn't just sit there and do nothing. I'm the type of person who likes to constantly be doing something that I feel is productive or well-spent time--which may or may not include hours of netflix…guilty! Anywho, I decided I would take my dog on a nice little morning walk, because then I could take a cool picture of the sun coming up over the fields and post it on instagram. My dog gets a walk and I have something to post, so its a win-win right?

Do you ever go to hang out with someone and regardless of whether or not you're actually enjoying your time together, you are more worried about taking a picture to post and show the social media world that you are having fun? I am 110% guilty of this. One of my favorite, and also most convicting statements I've heard lately is, "If you didn't post a picture of it, then did it even actually happen?!" It's obviously an over-dramatized statement, but it poses a valid point.

I'm not saying that posting a picture of you having fun with your friends is bad, by any means. What I am saying, is what's the motive behind it? If I'm completely honest with myself, 80% of the time I'm not posting a picture because I'm just truly, genuinely having fun with my friends. Most of the time, it's because I look good in that picture, or I want so-and-so to see it, or my favorite one: It will look like I actually hang out with people! Ouch, when I reread this paragraph, I'm pretty disappointed in myself.

Our generation has a tool that no other generation has had before, that can reach thousands of people and go viral in an instant. But what do we choose to post on it? Man crush mondays, transformation tuesdays, woman crush wednesdays, throwback thursdays, flashback fridays, outfit of the days, selfie sundays, sub-tweets, and the list goes on. Theres a common tweet that has been circulating twitter lately that reads:

This tweet has circulated around so much, because of how true it is. The amount of value and self-esteem we find in social media is unbelievable--whether it's how many likes my picture can get, how many favorites or retweets my tweets get, how many followers I have, how many friends I have, how many responses and comments I receive on my blog, or as silly as it is, whether or not the guy I like posts a woman crush wednesday of me.  

Once again, it is not wrong to post and share things, and be flattered by the response that you receive; It's when our value, confidence, and worth is found in what we post. Out of curiosity, I googled the top hashtags of 2014 so far, and this is what came up:

I wish I could say that I was surprised to find that most of the top hashtags were attempts of vying for attention. Unfortunately, I wasn't shocked to say the least. 

As the tweet above says, If we really don't want our own children to find their value in social media, when are we going to do something to change it? 

It's All About Perspective.

I am currently lying awake in bed at 5 am. I went to sleep just 4 short hours ago, until I was rudely awakened by terribly itchy eyes and a nose that I can hardly breathe out of due to allergies. My first reaction was to open my twitter feed and complain to the still-asleep world that I was awake at 5 am because of my stupid allergies. Why do we even have allergies anyways? What is the point in sneezing 10 times in a row and not being able to go out on a summer night without taking a hundred doses of allergy medicine? Why can't I just sleep through the night like any other normal person?

So I complained. I tweeted, "I'm really excited to be in Canada for a month because my allergies won't wake me up at 5 AM." I have the opportunity to serve at the most beautiful camp facility that I have ever seen, surrounded by breath-taking mountains, green everest forests, and whales coming up through the water. I have the opportunity to serve and grow with 45 other high school students from all over the nation for an entire month and be completely isolated from cell phones and social media. I have the opportunity to give a small amount of time focused on serving God and serving others at a place where thousands have come to know Christ. I have the opportunity to be grown and challenged like I never have been before, and I wrote that I'M EXCITED BECAUSE MY ALLERGIES WON'T WAKE ME UP AT 5 AM. 

Talk about feeling like an idiot. Not to mention, I didn't think through the fact that I will probably be awake at 5 am anyways--riddle me that one.

As if I didn't feel selfish and stupid enough already, that's when God decided to really clear up any confusion and remind me that earlier today, I learned that a student in my grade, and also son of a beloved staff member, was diagnosed with leukemia.

Let me reiterate that.

I'm sitting here throwing a pity party for myself and complaining about my "terrible, miserable life" because I didn't get my desired 9 hours of sleep, when a fellow student of mine is facing life-changing and possibly life-threatening circumstances.

Sometimes, it's important to take a minute and realize how truly blessed we are. Sometimes all it takes is  one moment of asking: What can I be thankful for in this moment? My annoying allergies and lack of sleep are two very unimportant issues in comparison to the countless reasons that I have to be thankful.
Along with trusting in God and His plan for our lives through the midst of ongoing tragedy around us, we should be praising Him and thanking Him! Once we realize how minuscule our own problems are, we are given the opportunity to begin to pray for those who are facing far more difficult circumstances.

Life is all about the perspective you choose to face it with.

No Turning Back

As this crazy world goes on, it seems that each and every day, a new tragedy strikes. Innocent people are murdered, children are abducted, women are sold into slavery, shootings are occurring, cancer is striking, sickness is spreading, families are breaking, and on and on and on. Tragedies are occurring every day, and with every single one, they are only growing closer and closer to hitting home.

But the real question is, what do we do about all of this?

About a week ago, our family was in a car accident. We were driving down the freeway when a lady suddenly veered into our car for seemingly no reason whatsoever. Our airbags deployed, and we went screeching off to the side of the freeway. My mother was driving, and directly behind her was my 8 year old brother. This was also the side that had been forcefully slammed into by the other vehicle. Thankfully, we were all able to walk away with no injuries. But it was in this moment that I was reminded how precious life is. The thought of losing my 8 year old brother, or any of my family members, brought me to tears. For the rest of the night, it didn't matter what happened. We didn't care where we went for dinner, we didn't argue about what movie to watch, we let the dog jump up on the couch (which he is usually NOT allowed to do), and we didn't care. You know why? Because we had been unpleasantly reminded of what is important in life. Family, friends, relationships, time spent together loving on people--that's what becomes important.

Today, there was a shooting at Seattle Pacific University, the school where my dear friend and also my sister attend. 4 students were shot in a place that is supposed to be safe--a place where there are thousands of young beautiful adults with bright futures ahead of them. My first thought was, who on earth would do such a thing. I read news reports and talked to my friend and sister, praising God that they were safe. I was sick to my stomach, feeling empathy for the families of those who lost loved ones today. But also sickened at the thought that someone would ever do such a thing.

I eventually moved on with my night and went to a friend's birthday party. When I came home, I took my dog out for our usual walk along the canal--we live on a lane in the country surrounded by farming fields. Before I left the house, my mom said something unusual to me, "Be careful."

I turned on my Worship Playlist and began to reflect. But as I was walking, my mom's words of, "Be careful," for some reason kept ringing in my head. She never tells me to be careful when I head out to walk the dog. Fear instilled within my mind and i began to think of all of the terrible things that have been happening in this world lately. I kept turning back to make sure that no one was behind a bush waiting to attack me. I was walking in my safe neighborhood along the tranquil, peaceful canal, and I was afraid that someone was going to attack me. I was afraid that some sort of harm would come my way because of the recent shooting. I was afraid because I had realized that anything can happen anywhere, no matter how safe we think it is. That's when the song I was listening to, "Christ is Enough", caught my attention.

In the bridge of the song it says:
The world behind me, 
The cross before me,
No turning back
No turning back

That's when I realized that my fear was absolutely RIDICULOUS. Why would I be afraid of this world when I have the cross before me? Why would I feel unprotected when I have my God on my side? Why should I live my life in fear when I know that at the end of my life--whenever it may be--I will be praising God with the angels in Heaven. The world is behind me, and the cross is before me.

No turning back, no turning back. I will not turn back because I know that my God is before me and has a plan for my life.

That's when it hit me:

What if God allows all of this tragedy to strike so that in the end, it will bring us closer to Him, forcing us to rely on Him alone. What if God allows all of this tragedy to strike so that in the end, we will go out and do work for His kingdom. What if God allows all of this tragedy to strike so that we will realize how precious life is and forget our own petty agendas. What if God allows all of this tragedy to strike so that He can make good out of the bad.

What if at the end of the day, all He wants to hear us say is:
Through every trial my soul will sing,
Jesus is here, to God be the glory.
Christ is enough for me,
Christ is enough for me,
Everything I need is in You
Everything I need.