So that…

Social media had become a vessel of the enemy's lies, a megaphone of missing out, a billboard of comparison, thinking maybe it would quiet the chaos in my mind for a minute when, in reality, it stirred it up even more.

A couple of months ago, I suddenly had no desire to be on social media anymore, and truthfully, I still have no desire to be.

Research shows what devices and social media are doing to our brains, lives, relationships and minds, especially in our children and youth, and it is enough to keep me away for good. No matter how you use social media, this is what I have come to realize and value about face-to-face life again: our lives are too important, our relationships are too valuable and our minds are too divinely designed than this space can ever give us.

Many of us know the story in John of the man whose blindness caused everyone to ask, " Whose sin did this?" Jesus responded not with blame but with purpose.

There are a lot of big choices in life. Whether we go or stay, fight or give up, who to marry, what job to accept, where to live, what school to send our children to, what college they will attend, do we say yes or no? There are so many choices. If we look here, social media and others can give us their answers; and yes, the Lord can use that, but the enemy can, too. How often has a post fueled a selfish thought or sent us into chaos trying to keep up?

Social media was not developed to give us life but to give us so much sight that it blinds us to true life. Much like the enemy came to steal, kill and destroy. But we know, Jesus came to give us life, life abundantly. (John 10:10)

Jesus has been asking me this year: "Where are you going to go? Who are you going to turn to?"

What about you? When you are happy, sad, struggling, celebrating, questioning, asking, trusting... Will you pick up your phone? Will you open social media? Will you go to the cabinet? The dating app? The party you know you shouldn't go to? The "friends" that always end up dragging you down? The website? Binge-watching or binge-eating? Celebrating or struggling... where do you go?

Why do we find ourselves here?

Wherever that here is for you.

What would change if you talked to Jesus about it? And maybe you do. For me, it has not been about just going to Him first. But going to Him until His peace is my peace, regardless of the outcome, instead of sometimes allowing it to be a hit-and-run. It looks different each time because He is not a vending machine, He is not a quick fix. He is Jesus. He is love and love never fails, but love also is iron sharpening iron.

Jesus is not a dopamine hit or a mindless scroll like reels, alcohol, binge-watching or social media. He doesn't want to just fix the moment for you to fill the emptiness again. He wants to fill your heart, your mind, your body with wholeness, joy and all of who He is so that in Him you have His peace regardless. And not just for yourself but for others to see Jesus through you, all of you- the hard, the good and the working through it with Him. Social media, or whatever your "here" is, will not do that. It just won't.

It might not be the coming here in itself but why you come here that matters and what you do with it. In the end, this should be a place where others can watch us experience God's miracles, not the place we go to see. Jesus is our source of life and light. The world is the source of darkness. His life in us will pierce the world's darkness around us, in us and through us when we give Him not just the first but all of us.

Why are you here?

"His disciples asked Him, “Teacher, whose sin caused this guy’s blindness, his own, or the sin of his parents?” Jesus answered, “Neither. It happened to him so that you could watch him experience God’s miracle. While I am with you, it is daytime and we must do the works of God who sent me while the light shines. For there is coming a dark night when no one will be able to work. As long as I am with you My life is the light that pierces the world’s darkness.” John 9:1-5 TPT