I was reading in Lk 21:1-4 this morning about the “widow’s mite.” Jesus was pushing his disciples to observe their surroundings in a much deeper, more meaningful, and more time-consuming way. On the surface, to the “casual observer”, it would appear that the richer people were giving tons of money and the widow gave almost nothing. Beneath the surface however, was reality. Reality was not visible on the surface. You had to dig down deeper to get a reality. Being a casual observer wasn’t good enough. You needed to be a “discerning observer” – a disciplined, thoughtful, caring, and wise observer to see through the fake and get to the reality of the situation. Of any situation.
We are living in a “face-value” world. We really don’t have the time or the desire to dig deep and seek reality. 140 character texts, Facebook posts, 10 second advertising blurbs. The problem is, everything starts looking the same. How can you discern a good company? All the websites, vision and mission statements all sound the same. All of them are love quality, love the customer, love their employees, love the environment. All resumes out there look the same. Amazing depth of experience, that oddly seems to fit the current job posting to the tee.
Facebook is a vehicle to promote the story of your life that you would want to be told, rather than the real story. How many people feel bad about the realities of their own life, family and circumstances when compared against the Facebook highlight reel of the life everyone else wishes they lived?
I was talking to someone recently about how much they hated church. The primary reason was their family would get dressed up and go to church every Sunday as a little kid, and everyone thought they were the best family. Behind the scenes, at home, there was physical and sexual abuse that was unchecked and terribly destructive. When we cater to the false realities, people lives can be damaged.
Even at a youth retreat like Blast. How do we look at the troubled youth? The youth that are trying to be hard, and difficult, belligerent, rebellious. Who want us to know they are not going to participate and don’t care about anything? Does it stop there? Should we wish for the difficult kids to be gone, or should we dig in, and try to get to the reality of the individual situations?
Frankly, I am so busy, distracted and exhausted that it is very easy for me to be a casual observer, and invest where I will get the best ROI, at least for the sake of appearances. Have I created even the margin in my life (spiritually, emotionally, physically) that is necessary to be a discerning observer in every hand-crafted-by-God opportunity for influence that I get on a daily basis?
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