Instagramification: What Our Social Media Habits Say About Our Generation Part 2

Part 2: Instagramification

In her super awesome Australian accent, Christine Caine called it our obsession with the "instant snap and upload." She was, and now I am, referring to this generations' infatuation with instantaneous social media capabilities. Your dog digging a hole into your neighbor's backyard? Don't worry, you can snap and upload that pic long before Spot's little nose ever crosses that property line. Did your baby just say her first word? Forget calling her "dada" whose name was the first audible sound to ever escape her mouth, that would take way too much time. Insta video that awesomeness for all the world to see. In less than 10 seconds we have the ability to transport our entire fan club of followers into our backyard, our home, our car, and even our overseas vacation.

What an amazingly advanced age we live in where a world full of information is at our instant beck and call. And all is good and fine until you see that little status bar at the top of your news feed come to a halt, or until you open your Instagram only to see that little loading circle of spite staring back at you. If you're like me, at that point you want to close out all your apps, consider writing a strongly worded letter to someone at the corporate office about why Instagram shouldn't be allowed to use the word 'insta' if it's going to take so long, and immediately look up the Apple helpline phone number because there MUST be something wrong if your phone is asking you to actually WAIT on something to happen. After all, we just don't have time to wait on anything these days.

Major problem. As a whole, our generation does not know how to wait for anything. I mean, why should we if we are paying a premium to have faster everything? To mention the words "dial-up" to anyone younger than 20 is like mentioning the words "Pony Express." They've probably heard of it before, but only in the history books. We've slowly done away with anything that requires us to wait. We are slowly doing away with the concept of delayed gratification. Our culture says if you don't want to wait until you're married to have sex, do it now. If you don't want to wait until you've earned your own money, take someone else's! If you are tired of waiting to be promoted, manipulate your way to the top! Why put in work for something you could pay to have handed to you?

Often times, we slash our way through shortcuts for the sake of expediency and instant gratification and we destroy the thing we are longing for because we take it too early. If you pick an orange before it is ripe, you aren't going to possess anything worth eating. If a woman goes into labor before the baby has come full term, there may be fatal consequences for the child. It seems like these days we don't care about anything enough to wait for it but the reality is that anything worth having is worth waiting for. The Kingdom of God is a lot about waiting. In fact, as a believer in Jesus Christ, I find my hope in the waiting.

If God were to hand me the fruition of every one of my dreams this very moment, I promise that I would destroy them long before I had the opportunity to enjoy them. Why? Because God is still developing me, molding me, and refining me so that when the time comes, I will be able to be a good steward of my dreams. I am encouraged in my waiting to pursue God and to desire things on his terms. Culture is telling me that if I can't have it now, it's not worth my time, but Jesus whispers that if it's not worth my time, it's probably not worth it.

I Love My Selfie, I Hate My Selfie: What Our Social Media Habits Say About Our Generation

Part 1: Our obsession with the selfie.

I’ve done it. You’ve done it. If she has a smartphone, your grandma has probably done it.  Though there’s nothing wrong with posting a selfie, you have to admit that our culture is obsessed with it. So obsessed, in fact, that apparently a band called The Chain Smokers has made hundreds of thousands of dollars off their single hit titled “#Selfie.” I only know this because when I typed the word “selfie” into the Google search bar, the lyrics to this hit song were the first thing to pop up on the world’s most popular search engine. Feeling a little naïve about never having heard this song that has 111,066,303 views and counting on YouTube, I clicked on the link to see the lyrics.  Let me just say, that’s 30 seconds of my life that I will never get back. Literally, the most ridiculous song I have ever not heard, but what did I expect from a band who calls themselves “The Chain Smokers?” However absurd the song may be, the chorus does reveal something so significant about a trap that our generation has walked right into. Let me give you the radio version…

Can you guys help me pick a filter?

I don't know if I should go with XX Pro or Valencia

I wanna look tan

What should my caption be?

I want it to be clever

How about "Livin' with my b***es, hash tag LIVE"

I only got 10 likes in the last 5 minutes

Do you think I should take it down?

LET ME TAKE ANOTHER SELFIE

Sad. Sad. Sad. What our obsession with the selfie reveals about our generation is an overall loss of our identity and an extreme plague of insecurity. Insecurity may not seem like it belongs on some fictional list of the “7 deadly sins,” but insecurity is possibly the biggest trap the enemy has laid for our generation. Why? Because insecurity leads to idolatry, pride, manipulation, gossip, and envy, and it causes blindness to the fact that we were made in the image of an Almighty Creator God. When we do not know who we are, we will bow down to the first thing that offers us a sense of significance. When we do not know who we are, we will boast in ourselves in order to become something in the eyes of others. When we do not know who we are, we will do whatever we have to in order to fight our way into the limelight. When we do not know who we are, we will cut one another down so that they cannot be confident in who they are. When we do not know who we are, we will wish we were something we are not. When we do not know who we are, we cannot fully know the God who created us.

We put ourselves out there waiting for someone to validate who we are. We have an innate desire to know that we are admired, that we are desired, that we are worth something; and instead of looking to the single source of our value, we look to one another and we are sadly disappointed. The reality is that no matter how many “likes” you get, it will never make you feel loved. No matter how many “hits” you get, it will never validate your worth. There is but one source and his name is Jesus Christ. He admired, desired, and counted us as worthy to the point of death. When he took the weight of our sin on that cross, he paid the price for our validation. Our longing for affirmation will take us to places we never intended to go if we do not search for it in the presence of Jesus. No one can tell you that you are not worthy, that you are not good enough, when you know the enormity of the sacrifice that he made for you. So go ahead and post your weekly selfie. I’m not expecting you to go on a selfie strike. But don’t you dare post that selfie as a solicitation for affirmation.  You are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that you should walk in them.

What Testimony?

A request that I get a lot as a pastor's kid, but also as a person who frequently finds herself immersed in spiritual conversations, is to share my testimony. If you would have walked up to me a few years ago and asked me "what's your testimony?" I most likely would have cringed, cast my eyes down, and said "What testimony?" I had this idea in my head that all testimonies sounded like this:

"Well after my parents abandoned me, I tried to rob a bank and I landed in prison at the age of 14 where I got hooked on drugs. I was an alcoholic by the age of 16 and I later found myself in rehab. One night Jesus appeared to me in a dream and told me if I didn't get my life right I was going to die. I surrendered my life to Christ and from that moment on I have been faithfully serving the Lord and my life is awesome."

I have heard testimonies like that, and they are powerful! But since my story sounded NOTHING like that, for the longest time I just assumed I had no testimony. I have never broken the law (minus the occasional speeding ticket, oops), I have never done drugs, I have never had a single sip of alcohol in my life, I didn't go through the "typical" rebellious teenager phase, and I grew up with two parents who could be the poster children for a curriculum on Godly parenting. I had convinced myself that God was never going to be able to use my story because it just wasn't bad enough. The very thought that I needed to have an extra "bad" life to have an extra "good" testimony makes me laugh now. 

Some of us as Christians have come to view our testimony as an opportunity to air our dirty laundry and prove just how bad we were before we encountered Christ. We boast in the fact that we were the worst sinners as if that makes Jesus more of a savior. That's not even what the word testimony means! A testimony is our opportunity to testify about the goodness and faithfulness of God in our lives. I don't need to go and purposefully do really bad, illegal things to prove that my God is really good. Rule followers are in just as much need of God as rule breakers. When I took the focus off of myself and put the spotlight on God, I realized that my testimony was just as powerful as the testimonies of my friends who have stories like the one I mentioned above.

Now that I have a more clear understanding of what it means to have a testimony and to share that story with the world, I jump at the opportunity. I love sitting down over coffee and pouring my heart out to anyone who can benefit from the story of God's faithfulness in my life. So, what is my testimony? I would love to tell you.

My testimony is the fact that I never thought I had one. I grew up in an incredible family. My mom and dad pastor one of the best churches on the face of the planet, and I was exposed to the Gospel at a very early age. When I was four years old, I made a very conscious, very sincere decision to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I fully understood that I was in just as much need of Him as the most hardened criminal. The Gospel is for everyone, after all. I was not the perfect child by any means, but really, is there such a thing? Growing up, I battled with fear, habitual sin, a bad attitude, insecurities, and other things that make me human, but God consistently displayed His grace and favor, and was my constant companion as I walked through those things with Him. Thankfully, He still shows that same grace and favor as I walk through new battles with Him to this day.

 Because my mom and dad were firm believers in the fact that even young people can do ministry, I had a ton of opportunities to serve the Kingdom as a child, and I loved it! I had the opportunity even as a pre-teen and then teenager to lead worship, teach the Bible, feed our people, and just love on those who needed it most. The summer before eighth grade, I heard the call of God on my life to do full-time ministry for the very first time and that is the call that I continue to pursue to this day. I haven't lived a life free of sickness, or sin, or problems by any means, but I have lived a life that has been very protected by God… for a purpose. With an understanding of the call of God on my life, there have been a lot of things that I have had to say no to when others were saying yes. I said no to listening to secular music in high school, I said no to dating, I said no to watching movies that would not edify me, I said no to parties and drinking, and I said yes to a life ruled by Jesus. I decided to be set apart for God.

All throughout the Bible, we see instances of God setting people apart specifically to do something for His Kingdom. When he was just a boy, God gave Samuel his first message for the people and set him apart as a prophet to the nation of Israel. When God called Gideon, He told him to consecrate himself, or set himself apart, so that he could be used by God. When Jesus sent the disciples to fetch the donkey that He would use for His triumphant entry into Jerusalem, He instructed them to bring Him a donkey that no man had ever ridden before. The colt had been tied up for God's purposes and now the very first person to break him in would be Jesus himself. I allowed myself to be tied up for God so that I could carry His Gospel to the world. 

Now let me add this disclaimer just to be completely clear. If your story looks more like the second paragraph of this blog and a little less like mine, I am NOT saying God cannot use you. He can and He will use you to reach people that I will never be able to reach. I don't know what it's like to grow up without a dad, or to have battled a drug addiction, or to have been set free from an undesirable upbringing. I can speak truth from the Word of God to people in those situations, but I will never be able to tell them "I have been there and this is what God did in me."You have the ability to walk them through that thing at a level I will never be able to without the supernatural intervention of God. I am also NOT saying that I'm the perfect little girl who can count the total number of mistakes I've made on my right hand. 

MY POINT IS THIS… no matter who you are, where you've come from, and how your story sounds, GOD CAN AND WANTS TO USE IT. Your problems are not to big nor are they too small to be a tool of redemption in the hand of God. Your testimony is not about you, but it about the faithful God who brought you to where you are today. Our testimonies are one of our biggest weapons against the enemy.

"And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and BY THEIR TESTIMONY. And they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die." Revelation 12:11

The Emancipation

Today is Shine a Light on Slavery Day. The End It movement website posted this encouraging charge: "Let’s be the generation to stand up for the 27 million men, women and children trapped in slavery around the world today. In brothels. In factories. In mines. On street corners. In homes. In the shadows, hidden. Yet out in broad daylight, in plain sight here in America. Stand with us. Raise your voice. Use your influence. Join the fight for FREEDOM."

That's awesome, and what an incredible cause! However, I can't help but stop and think about the other kind of slavery that we are experiencing in our world today. There are 27 million people trapped in physical slavery, but there are 4 billion bound up in darkness. 

Statistics show that there are 4 billion people on this earth who have either never surrendered their lives to, nor ever even heard about Jesus Christ. That is 4 billion people who know not of the reason they were created. That is 4 billion people who have no hope for a future. That is 4 billion people who are lost in darkness. That is 4 billion people who Jesus laid down his life for.

Our job as believers is to be the statistic changers. The charge that has been given to each one of us is to share with the world the truth of who God is in our lives; to share with the world the hope that burns on the inside of us. There are lost people in the jungles of South America; there are hopeless people on the plains of Africa; there are even people living in darkness on the streets of East Texas. Our job as believers is to be the emancipators. 

It is crucial that we understand that slavery to sin knows no borders-- it is not considerate of cultures. Therefore, it is crucial that we understand that the Gospel knows no borders-- neither is it considerate of cultures. The Gospel is for the world, therefore we must be for the world. We must listen for God's direction for our lives and then respond to that direction no matter where it may lead us. We must be as content to serve in the White House as we would be to serve in the dumps of Ethiopia. Our job is not to be the critic of where God sends us. It is simply to find out where that place is and then to pour out our lives for the people there. 

There are people in chains waiting to be set free on the other side of your obedience.

That Time Spanish Made Me Cry

If you know me at all, you know that I'm a crier. If you don't know me, Hello. My name is Alexis, and it has been zero days since the last time that I cried. What can I say? Things effect me. Show me the Procter & Gamble "Thank You Mom" commercial from the 2012 Olympics or Jeep's tribute to our troops from this year's Superbowl and expect waterworks.  As active as my tear ducts may be, however, I don't usually burst into tears in the middle of Spanish 204 as I did today. It's not what you might think. Yes, Spanish 204 is ridiculously hard and frustrating, but I wasn't crying because I was having a hard time understanding the lesson, or because no teacher should be allowed to assign the amount of work that we received today.

My teacher loves to talk about Spain and she loves to pass around pictures from her time there. Today, she passed around a book about the different monuments and landmarks that draw travelers from around the globe. As I was sitting at my desk, slowly browsing through page after page of beautiful photos of one of the mosques in Córdoba, I was amazed at the time and effort put into the architecture. The thought almost immediately crossed my mind, "How sad that all that beauty and intricate design was wasted on a place where so many people go to offer worship to a god that is inexistent and a god that does not hear them." I continued to flip through the book, and came across pictures of a gorgeous cathedral that was build right down the street from the mosque. I started to think, "That's better. At least someone spent their money and creative energy on a place where people go to worship the real God." But my thought was interrupted by the Holy Spirit.

"Man has labored in vain. Striving to make their places of worship beautiful, they have neglected what I desire most: worship that comes from a pure heart. They come before me on parade, showing off their good deeds like trophies, but they have missed the whole point. I don't want a show or a great display of the talents I have given them. I want them to draw near to me." And THAT'S when I started crying.

I don't think that even one of us could say that we have not been guilty of this. We decorate our 'worship' with beautiful adornments that we think the Father will delight in, and we miss His call to come and be with Him; to worship Him in the stillness of His presence. How many times have I invited Him into my place of worship and spent the first portion of my time with Him giving Him a tour of the great places I have built in vain? He does delight in my deeds and in the fruit that my life bears, but He desires my heart. My plain, simple, unadorned heart.

The Reality of My Nightmare

I've woken up in a panic these past three mornings from a reoccuring nightmare. I can't even take a nap without experiencing the same dream over and over. Unfortunately, this isn't one of those "I had too much to eat before bed" dreams or one of those "I got swallowed by a giant sea monster" nightmares. Those would be preferable since those are easy to shake off with a little mental processing and common sense. These nightmares have been different.

The last thing I saw before my eyes shot open this morning was an elderly man being burnt alive as I lay on the ground bruised and bleeding thanks to the large armed guard that stood nearby. Each night, my nightmares take place in a shoddy prison camp in which I am being held captive with about 20 other Christ-followers and an elderly Jewish man. We have been imprisoned for refusing to renounce our faith in Jesus and the gray-haired man has been imprisoned for being considered of a lesser pedigree. Day after day, men armed with assault riffles and pure hatred enter our holding cell and try to wear us down to a point of the renunciation of our faith. They spit in our faces and drive the butts of their guns against our heads as they scream threats against our lives and the lives of our families that we have not seen since our imprisonment. Because they need to make room for more prisoners, each day they come in and burn one of our fellow inmates alive as we are forced to stand by and watch. This morning, they came to kill the elderly Jewish man who had become my dear friend. Days before, he had begun to ask me about this man Jesus on whose behalf my friends and I were willing to endure such pain. Over the course of a few days, I had the opportunity to tell him the story of God's great love for mankind and His plan of redemption through Jesus Christ. As my friend was being bound to the platform to be burned, I shouted out to him, "Remember the story I've been telling you! It's not too late! Jesus is here, surrender your life to Him! He is your only hope!" I began to sob violently as my dear old friend cried out, "Jesus, come and be the Lord of my life! I believe that you died for all of my sins and that you were raised back to life! I need you!" And with that, I saw my friend breathe his last and felt the force of the gun being brought down on the side of my head. Then, I woke up.

How could I possibly shake that off when it is the reality of so many believers around the world? Each year, approximately 105,000 believers are put to death for their belief in Jesus, and hundreds of thousands more are daily tortured in prison for their faith. I attribute my nightmares to the fact that I am in the process of reading the book The Insanity of God by Nik Ripken. In his book, Ripken tells the stories of the persecuted church in Somaliland, Russia, and former nations of the Iron Curtain. He records firsthand accounts of pastors who spent decades in prison being beaten, starved, and deprived of every human right. He tells of their love for Jesus that is so strong that they would willingly offer up their lives and the lives of their families if it meant Jesus was glorified through their testimony. 

What do we know about a faith like this? For most of us, the answer is nothing. The majority of people who will read this blog, though possibly not all of you, live in a nation where it literally costs us nothing to be a follower of Jesus. Some may argue that I am incorrect in saying this. They would argue that it costs them their time, or a friendship, or their reputation among their peers. Seriously? We need to get over ourselves. There are people dying, watching their wife and kids be gunned down in the streets, being beaten and forced to eat human waste. These people are experiencing the cost. At the first sign of social pressure, most of us would run and hide. What are we going to do when the persecution of Christ followers makes its way to the west? What are we going to do when we have a decision to make between faithfulness to Jesus or the lives of our children? We have to recognize the price that has been paid for us. Jesus was beaten, mocked, and killed unjustly for something that WE did. He was obedient to death so that when we die, it is not the end. For us, their is no pain in death. We should count it an honor to suffer as our savior suffered, an honor to die for His name. The most man can do is take our life, and that is to no definite end, because to be absent from our bodies is to be present with God.

So fall in love with Jesus. Let nothing be of greater worth. Remember those who are suffering as though you were in prison yourself, because my nightmare is a reality for our brothers and sisters around the world.

Give It Up

Do you ever think about the words you sing when you worship? I mean REALLY think about them? I will be the first to admit that I have made it through entire worship sets where I sung every word of every song completely in vain. I have sung "break my heart for what breaks yours" as I put up iron-clad walls to protect my heart. I have sung "Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders" without any intention of actually following him into an uncomfortable situation. Last night I sang "I surrender" as I clung so tightly to things that He was asking me to lay at His feet. 

For weeks I have been walking around with my fingers in my ears, not wanting to listen to what the Lord was saying to me. I knew He was calling me to surrender everything for the sake of following Him, but I didn't want to hear His voice. I knew that the moment I heard Him the only acceptable response on my part would be total obedience, and I just wasn't willing to put my heart on the altar. In all honesty, I had created for myself an idol. The truth is that anything in our lives that we would not let go of in a split second for the sake of the Lord is an idol. We cannot let anything hold so much of our affection that we would chose to be disobedient in order to retain it. When I realized there was something I was unwilling to give up, I knew that's what I had to do.

It has never hurt so badly to give up something for the Kingdom. As I laid down the thing I loved on the altar, I thought of Abraham's journey up the mountain to sacrifice his son Isaac. For years God promised Abraham a son, and now He was asking him to give that promise away. I can imagine how Abraham felt as he led Isaac up that mountain. I'm sure his stomach was in knots, his heart was breaking with each step, and he felt like he was living in a bad dream. But he was willing. Abraham's love for and devotion to God was even greater than the love he had for his son, so he was obedient. He was obedient and God was faithful. God stopped Abraham at the very last moment and provided an alternate sacrifice. I'm not sure my story will turn out the same way. My heart longs for an ending where God restores the very thing He asked me to lay down, but that's not where my hope lies. My hope is in the fact that my God is faithful. He does not do things to be mean or hurtful, but simply because He loves me. He is faithful to keep that which I have entrusted to Him and I have entrusted Him with everything. 

When I laid everything I had at the feet of Jesus, I heard His voice again. It is the sweetest voice I know. He calls me to go higher, to run faster, and to pursue harder than I ever have before. I refuse to let this season be in vain. In the midst of a time when I could focus on loss, when I could focus on the pain that remains in my heart from the surgery that God performed last night, I choose instead to set my eyes on Jesus. I choose to renew my mind with the Word. I choose to grow and be molded into who He created me to be. There is so much hope. There is so much peace. There is so much love in the arms of my Maker.