So I recently got back in Instagram and Twitter
(@mallorybueche people!). I know, I know, welcome to 2012 Mal. The truth is,
besides writing and speaking to the masses, I don’t feel like people want to
know about the details of my life. Yours looks better than mine according to
your pictures so why would I torture myself? Never the less, I know that if I
even want my voice to be heard on a big ole stage, I need to become relevant
again which by necessity requires me to invade your life with mine from a distance.
I have read many times over and agree that social media is a
joy stealer because it by its nature reveals everything we don’t have. I
remember when I was on a dating fast from 2012-2013 I all of a sudden noticed
that everyone on my Facebook was getting married.
“WTH Lord? I’m 25 and I can’t even date while all of these
super cute sorority younger girls are getting engaged! My life sucks.”
Oh. Wait. It Doesn’t.
This pretty much happens with everything, someone bought a house;
someone was hanging out with my friends while I wasn’t there, marriage, babies,
Euro trips, people losing weigh; you name it.
The pictures, posts and tweets on these sites tend to stir up in us a
longing, revealing that we at our core are entitled.
We think we deserve a certain kind of life and when we perceive that much of
the world has what we don’t; it leaves us feeling empty.
Now this is the negative view of social media but with my
re-entry into the world wide web of lives, I have noticed something different to
be explored. Although technology has changed us in quite an irreversible way,
the human heart remains the same. Almost every picture that I have seen in the
past few days is somehow beautiful and if I can put aside my jealousy, I can
allow that picture to bring me to gratitude.
Example. I just saw a picture of a friend running through a
vineyard in California. Now I have two options.
The first, I can choose to be jealous that I am not with her
in Napa. I can be jealous that I don’t have beautiful ombred hair, I suck at
taking pictures and I am not 3 years younger than I am. Dang, all of a sudden
me with my baller husband, objectively cute baby and happy life in Denver, well
we suck!
OR
The second, vineyards exist and are beautiful. They produce tasty
grapes but also make wine, a delightful indulgence. My friend is cool and so is
her ombred hair. Every single thing is this picture is pretty neat and the same
being has created it all. That same being created my life and surrounded me
with His creation. This creation cries out to His Glory asking me to do the
same. Praise God for vineyards, Praise God for wine, Praise God for my friend
and for the beauty He has placed before us both.
The former view is one of comparison leading to entitlement
and ending in despair. The latter view is one of gratitude leading to
appreciation for all creation and ending in glorifying the creator.
My friends, we were made for the latter.
All creation cries out to the glory of God! Have you ever
taken the time to notice that your surroundings seem to ring out to something
beyond itself? If you haven’t, you are too busy. If you have, you would be
wrong to let your joy in creation stop there, it has a creator and the
gratitude belongs to Him.
After my Saturday
morning run I posted a picture of the mountains towering over me patting me on
the back for a workout well done. My run was awesome and every single facet of
it, the invention of running, my able body, the beauty of my surroundings, the
technology of audio books can be linked back to the real creation of a real
creator. There is an author of life and
everything flows from Him. He does not change because you ignore Him; it simply
leaves you in the wrong.
There is no guarantee that those who are posting these
beautiful pictures are living out blissful lives. I actually know for a fact
that many of them are not. It is despite the imperfection of our lives, the
bruises we get by simply waking up in the morning that millions search for
beauty and somehow… FIND IT! Let us not forget it’s maker.
To quote G.K. Chesterton “I would maintain that thanks are
the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder”
How many of us every reach this?
Look beyond the comparison trap of social media and find
instead an invitation to gratitude. Wonder just might be lurking around the
corner. We as a people have largely lost our ability to be captured by wonder.
We far to often consume the created without giving a thought to it’s creator. I
propose that we can regain this if we click on our phone apps with a different
perspective. No matter object, God deserves the glory and it is in glorifying
God, and forgetting ourselves that true joy can be found.
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