A storm is brewing.
We can see it with the hurricane of stories flooding media outlets. Torrents of rain pounding down upon our heads, whispering lies of how little, unseen or insignificant we are.
Still, it’s the marching of darkness, that makes me grab my chest. The locus’ stirring chaos, making messes, that make us cry out in unrest.
And I think we all long for a hole in the dark, a break from the clouds, a glimmer of hope to warm the coldness all around….so we can make it through the night.
God around us
I hear her seven-year-old voice peak into my room. She holds three cards that say, “I love you”. They have pictures. This Little Light that sees the world through innocence, simply fills my space with peace.
And while we all look for things to share on social media, this moment is just ours; this giving of a creation from her heart, and my wide open arms welcomes her into my space.
And while the winds infiltrate all that is settled and still, I find a piece of Jesus right here, in the smile of a child, seeing and hearing the pulse of a moms heart who has been weary and needing God.
She fluttered with wings so fast I couldn’t see them; the hummingbird looking for nourishment in the Fuchsia outside my door. I was almost so busy I ignored her.
And I realized God brings beauty through more than just reels on the internet.
I stop scrolling. I get low. I watch as the bird goes in and out of that flower. She is elegant and poised. Grace-filled and yet somehow just naturally, doing what she was created to do.
And in a world of AI, made up stories, false fronts of celebrities posing in one imagine, while living another…
I have forgotten, there is a real world with children and nature, beauty, and waiting, where God shows up best.
And could that be the tactic of the enemy?
Distract us with images that are one dimensional, shifting our hearts from ornate awe and beauty, to cold, sterile images, detaching us from humanity?
And why, being from a generation where screens hadn’t yet poisoned us, was even I pulled into the calling of a screen, like a Roulette Wheel, hoping to land on just the right place that revealed so called, “golden revelation”?
Can we ever be truly fulfilled combing through other people’s lives? Can we ever really survive being emotionally untied from the living, breathing world that exists all around us?
Jesus never hid in a building.
When the Pharisees found comfort in large pillars and cool buildings, Jesus broke outside the four walls around him and went TO the people, stepping into creation.
He found a way to make connections in ways that couldn’t be mass replicated.
Still, we want fast revenue? Perfectly filtered storefronts that represent nothing of what we really are, on the inside?
Why do we hide behind screens? Why do we leave the living breathing people around us, for a flat, lifeless screen of strangers who haven’t even met us?
When did we become willing to give up our inheritance to strangers?
Our time with our children for “likes” that don’t serve us? Exchanging tender moments with our spouses, for a funny meme, a trending dance on Tik Toc that means absolutely nothing to anybody?
My guess is that when we look back one day; our homes empty, our children grown and distant…
Won’t we regret replacing real people with a square piece of metal that fit in our hands?
Won’t we grieve every second we spent lost in the next storm the media has convinced us to not look away from?
When we die, will we look back with our final breathe and say, “I wish I had scrolled the internet more”, or “I wish I had invested in more social media follows”….
No, during our last breathe, we’ll beg to stroke the faces of our loved ones we neglected. We’ll ache to hear the voices of the one we were in covenant with.
Why do we daily and willingly jump into the storm? Why do we miss out on the peace and beauty, just to be thrust into an ungraspable current of wind that only thrashes us into pieces?
Science has connected anxiety to social media.
And yet, our screens? They call us. We feel the pull….
From our computers, TV’s, and from our gaming devices that leave us with greater chains around our necks, than when we sat down to play them.
Let it go. Friends, just let it go. For one moment. One day. One hour. Look away and really look at, the people God has placed in your life.
Take in the air as it fills up your lungs. Walk and see the mission field around us of people we are called to love and serve, without motives or agendas.
Lean on His peace and grace. Let it fill your very lungs and weigh you down, so you are not carried to the next “big thing”, pulled in a thousand directions, and distracted by the reality that…
We have an enemy that hates the very word, “Still”.
Stillness. It fills us.
Quiet spaces. They repair us.
Holy tranquility. Redeems us with its message.
Taste and see that He is good. He is here in the disconnected, unseen moments that were never made for social media.
But first, it’s our job to turn our backs to the hurricane. Slow down. And just grip the silence as if it was a beloved, old friend…
Distraction is simply an enemy that wants to rob and steal from us.
It is in the stillness, He lives.
In the quiet, He speaks.
In the peace that lives in the eye of the storm, where you will find what you have been looking for most.
Promise, provision, protection, presence…
And peace.
When we turn our backs on the screens that lure us like a hurricane, we find what we value most…
God, His beauty and above all…
Other people.
