Commercials, catch
words, political slogans, and high-flying intellectual rumors clutter our
mental and spiritual space. Our minds and bodies pick them up like a dark suit
picks up lint. They decorate us. We willingly emblazon messages on our shirts, caps,
even the seat of our pants. Sometime back we had a national campaign against
highway billboards. But the billboards were nothing compared to what we now
post all over our bodies. We are immersed in birth-to-death and
wall-to-wall “noise”, silent and not so silent.
-Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy
That book, published in 1998, was well before the dawn of
the social media age, and the internet was still in in childhood stages. First
it was billboards that littered the highways with advertising slogans and
messages, then the constant pale light of television, and today, of course it
is the internet that hurls message after message towards the masses. The
dystopian future described in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 does not seem so farfetched today.
Not a day goes by when one cannot be bombarded with constant
“noise,” some of it self-inflicted. True solidarity is hard to find. Gyms
ironically have televisions at every treadmill and are posted all around the
weight area as blaring music plays over the loudspeakers. Of course one can
combat this with a good pair of headphones, but that simply substitutes the
“noise” for one that is more pleasant and personal. The first thing one does
after starting the car is tune to the right radio station or playlist instead
of adjusting the mirrors and checking blind spots. When one gets home from work
or school, the television turns on right after the briefcase or backpack hits
the floor. Even the bathroom, once a sacred palace of solidarity is no longer
private thanks to smartphones.
The realm of social media is a microcosm of the modern
world. The noise here is amplified even more. And here people cannot
distinguish between what is meaningful and what is frivolous.
Not a day goes by without a post from someone who attempts
to rise above the Buzzfeed lists and the recycled memes in order to impart some
great truth upon his social media sphere of influence.
This video will change
your life!
This will restore your
faith in humanity!
Of course that short video will not change one’s life and do very
little to alter an already entrenched world view. The instrumental music that plays in the background (probably sounds something like this, great song by the way), perfectly
matched up with pictures and video designed to inspire some type of truth may
bring the viewer to tears. One will feel compelled to re-post the video and
raise awareness for whatever great social injustice flavor of the month, but
awareness without action is useless.
The post to restore one’s faith in humanity looks good in a
vacuum, when it again is accompanied by the same music that played in the video
before. But after one leaves the glow of the computer screen and powers down
the smartphone and encounters people in the real world, the sad corrupt and
broken reality of human nature is exposed within a matter of a few seconds, and no amount of videos of people practicing random acts of kindness or children standing up to bullies or coming alongside the picked upon will change that fact.
Willard again writes later in the chapter:
In the shambles of fragmented assurances from the past, our longing for goodness and rightness and acceptance -and orientation- makes us cling to bumper slogans, body graffiti, and gift shop nostrums that in our profound upside-down-ness somehow seem deep but in fact make no sense: "Stand up for your rights" sounds good. How about "All I ever needed to know I learned in kindergarten"? And "Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty"... All that is really profound in the cute wisdom is the awesome need of soul to which they incoherently respond. We sense the incoherence lying slightly beneath the surface, and we find the incoherence and lack of fit vaguely pleasing and true to life: What is the point of standing up for rights in a world where few sand up for responsibilities? Your rights will do you little good unless others are responsible. And does one learn in kindergarten how to attract people and make a lot of money by writing books assuring people they already know all they need to know to live well? And how do you practice something that is random? Of course you can't. What is random may hit you, but whatever is purposely done is certainly not random. And no act of beauty is senseless, for the beautiful is never absurd. Nothing is more meaningful than beauty...Absurdity and cuteness are fine to chuckle over and perhaps muse upon. But they are no place to live. They provide no shelter or direction for being human.
These inspirational viral videos, the uplifting stories that come a dime a dozen, are today's "cute noise" and they are indeed a very shaky place to build a lifestyle around. I know this because I have watched those videos and am
guilty of reading that article (and in this case, guilty of trying to impart
some life lesson on you. The irony is not lost on me). Some of those videos are
well put together and succeed at breaking through my stoic nature and would
evoke tears had my tear ducts not dried up long ago. But after clicking
through, I am still the same person I was before. My life has not been changed
by a promotional video. Those videos are effective in proper contexts, but the
internet is not that place.
Bible verses and hymn lyrics, sermon excerpts come from the
Christian crowd, truths that I agree with and will affirm. But what good are
they on someone’s newsfeed? I am not doubting the power of scripture to be
clear, but has the person posting this truly sat down and reflected and
meditated and prayed over what they posted and come to the conclusion that the
rest of the world needed to know what they were thinking? Or did the Christian
just want people to know that they fulfilled their spiritual duties by having a
“quiet time” at some obscure coffee shop? Were these words ripped out of
context to make the verse point to the person who read it rather than to
Christ? In the words of John, was the person who posted attempting to decrease
himself in order for Jesus to increase, or was he posting to increase the
number of his notifications? When a non-believer reads these spiritual musings,
do they simply feel annoyed because someone else can’t keep their religion in
their pants, or chuckle because there is a glaring inconsistency between the
spiritual Christian they see on Facebook and the foul mouthed self-righteous
asshole they know in real life? Eventually, for everyone, it all turns to
noise.
In John 12, Jesus is living is last days in Jerusalem before
he is betrayed and crucified, when this happens:
“Now is my soul
troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this
purpose I have come to this hour. Father glorify your name.” Then a voice came
from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd that
stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has
spoken to him.” John 12:27-30
When the voice of truth rang audibly into the world for
people to hear, they confused it for something else. Perhaps it was thunder, or
angels, but not God, not the voice of truth. The crowds around him, even though
he as the embodiment of truth and goodness, 100% God and yet 100% man, still
did not grasp who he was.
Though he had done so
many signs before them, they still not believe in him…Nevertheless, many even
of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not
confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; for they loved
the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God. John
12:31, 42-43
When real truth
breaks into your life, when something that transcends the witticisms of social
media posts, will you be able to recognize it? When you hear it, will you
explain it, share it with others, not out of motivation for the approval of
your peers, but to bring glory to the one who made it known to you?
A solid foundation to build a life upon is there to be found, but it is not found in the noise of everyday life. It is not confined to 140 characters (Trust me, all @phildaddy90 likes to tweet about is food, bud light lime, pooping, and working out) or some angsty 20-something's blog. I have a few suggestions of where to start, but I think you can guess which direction I'll point you in.
Sheep know the voice of their shepherd, and that voice is always calling out. I hope you can hear it above the noise.
