To catch up with our Lent journey, check out this post that explains our practice.
Our world today makes it easy for everyone to be seen. We all have our different platforms—schools, jobs, social media—which make it easy for us to express who we are, what we think, how we live. We yearn and crave for influence—that our carefully crafted perspective and opinions would be known, would be agreed with, would be heard, and responded to with wholehearted agreement. Social media makes this easy. The Algorithm that discreetly manufactures our experience of the world around us makes it seem as though our thoughts are the same as everyone else’s. That when we have a distinct experience, opinion, or preference, so will the people around us.
We long for this kind of power to be true: the power to be heralded as right, as thoughtful, intellectual, experienced…
As years go by and history textbooks evolve, there is something inside of humankind that yearns for legacy. We want to each find ourselves on the right side of history, to be among the great minds and characters that stand out through the ages. We long to be remembered, and the best way to cultivate that legacy is to put ourselves forth in the world: opinion and knowledge and perspective, in the hopes that it will be influential, that what we bring may be wrestled with and contended with for years to come. We want to make our mark.
Jesus gives us a grander invitation, however. To pursue him, the glory of his name even above our own, is met with the promise of eternity. The promise that we would not be forgotten in time, that we would not be overlooked or unseen. No! The promise of Jesus is that, in following him, we are seen and known more intimately than the masses may ever see or know us. We are loved, valued, cared for, and invited into an eternity that has much more to offer than a name on a page of a history book.
READ
2 Corinthians 4:18
REFLECT
How is the wanting of legacy expressed in my life?
What entanglements are showing up in my life as a result of chasing after this want?
If my wanting of legacy is actually a shared longing with God for eternity, what might pursuit of eternity over legacy look like?
RESPOND
Start with a confession. Invite the Holy Spirit to reveal barriers to surrender that arise in you.
I confess that I have wanted ____ more than ____.
I confess the ways that I have become entangled by this want and renounce the lie that ____.
Now, choose repentance by turning toward God.
I confess that you are God and I am not and that your longing for ____ is actually my deeper longing.
FAST
As a way of living into your repentance, consider fasting from social media this week.
Distance yourself from ways to influence or have your voice heard.
RECEIVE
Read Psalm 23. Right in the middle of our entanglements (our enemies), Jesus meets us with love and provision.
Holy Spirit, what do you want to give me from the table you have prepared for me?