ExTRa, EXtrA, ReAD aLL abOUt It

Well, the online world has done it again..........scratch that.....the online world is capitalizing on and growing due to what is already inside of us. Yeah, maybe the problem isn't everyone else after all. I don't know about you but it becomes increasingly difficult to read friends' posts and hear what seeps out of their hearts on the daily. I, for one, have been forced to re-evaluate my life choices.

If we are consistently passing blame onto others, we leave little time for self evaluation. We are distracted by the perceived attacks against us that we don't realize we could use some good old-fashioned crop failure in some areas of our own "gardens".

"When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don't blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce. Yet if we have problems with our friends or family, we blame the other person. But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like the lettuce......" ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

The online world is reactive, judgmental, and headline oriented. Very few dig deep for the real story. We like what appears to be sensational and over-reaching and even explosive. That tantalizes us, draws us in, and makes us crave even more. It's an insatiable hunger that cannot be satisfied. And in all the melee, we don't even realize that we have become what we have claimed to detest. We are the judges. We are the antagonists. We are the hypocrites. We are just like the "them" we vowed never to become. Luke 18:9-14 gives us a great example of what that looks like and what the only real Judge thinks about it.

"To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: God, I thank you that I am not like other people - robbers, evildoers, adulterers - or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get. But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."

Two men, both blessed enough to carry the breath of God in their bodies. Both in different stations in life and one with quite more advantage and opportunity than the other. The difference that matters to the Lord is the one that is not always seen with the naked eye. God is after the hearts of men, unconcerned with the attempts to self-elevate and make grand gestures to garner favor. Despite popular belief, we are not on the same page as the God we claim to follow if we forget this memorable passage.

But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." (I Samuel 16:7)

We claim to have, or people that we like, have "good hearts". There's a passage that dispels that thinking too.

"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9)

Just when you think we got it all figured out, we realize we don't know as much as we thought.

This piece is not written with the intent to get you to spend less time on the web and less time on your Facebook and Twitter pages. You can take all the selfies you like on Instagram. And you can give yourself reindeer eyes to your heart's content on Snapchat. The overriding point is that while we are entering into this world that seemingly has little rules and a low standard of decorum, perhaps we can consider holding fast to the profession we so often say we have.

I can tell you that we are wasting time and we could at some moment, find ourselves unprepared and on the other side of eternity. I could say that you could have years of training and education and degrees in divinity and the one moment you decide you will not help someone you deem undeserving could be the deal breaker. I could say that before we press "Send", maybe we should take twelve hours, or 24 hours or whatever it takes to be sure that these words we release into the "always" is what we want attached to us for our kids and grand-kids to see.


I'll leave this to your consideration. To those that try to espouse positive messages and promote things that edify and encourage, I say "Thank you." You are probably feeling lonely and unappreciated and you might be wondering why you should keep doing what you are doing. Someday, somewhere, in some part of the world we live in, someone will look past the scathing headline and actually read the content. Someone will scroll past the clickbait and thirst traps and look for something that feeds the need they have and presents itself as a salve for the wounded hearts. Someone might even respond with a "Thank you" themselves. Some may not have the heart to respond in any form. Keep the momentum and don't quit. The world is inundated with so called "news".

I fully intend to take my own advice. So you are not at all alone. Godspeed!