To what degree are apathy and triviality the besetting sins of wealth, leisure, and the pursuit of pleasure?
Also, it seems to me that the 'attention economy' we've created forms and requires both. We need just enough attention to direct, trigger, and reinforce certain behaviors (buying, voting, sharing), but not enough to warrant reflection, questioning, or challenge. How do you think our attention economy relates to the observations you're making above?
I'm struck by your conversation with campus ministers (being one ;-). It seems to me one of the challenges is a lack of (or a lack of awareness of) genuinely inspiring (dare I say 'authentic') Christians. The heroes of American Christianity have died or fallen. Are the 'rising voices' of Christian faith sufficiently different from 'influencers' to inspire holiness? Where are the saints whose lives are so full of love for God and neighbor, that they pray for 3 hours a day? Where are the Christians who can look at the churn of our culture with engaged indifference? It seems to me, to disagree with the chapel speaker, that their question was possibly misdirected? Rather than ask young people why they aren't giving themselves to a vision of Christian discipleship that requires something of them, perhaps we should ask why our embodiment of Christian discipleship is so dull and uninspired. What do you think?
This topic reminds me of Paul's words to the Colossian church: "For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me." He knew that his efforts were being empowered by Christ and that ultimately it would be Christ in the Colossians (not Paul in the Colossians) that would be their hope of glory. And so he put forth the effort that was required of him in partnership with God.
I've been working a lot on some goal-setting in the last few days, and one thing that keeps convicting me is that the question "what do I want my life to look like" doesn't keep in sight the question of what does God want my life to look like. I'm trying to work through the tension of believing that He does use our desires to move and motivate us but also that building a life to suit myself isn't my whole duty. I find myself straying into triviality when triviality should be the accents if anything, not making up the substance of my life. But it's so, so true that our culture (and myself, as part of it) makes trivialities so important. Anyway, good food for thought, thank you!
This post pairs well with all that I've been thinking about in the wake of Aleksei Navalny's death. So far as I can tell, he was a follower of Jesus, and that is what enabled him to live dauntlessly, fearlessly, joyfully, hopefully in the face of persecution and death in the gulags. I have been so convicted by his present day example of courage and faith-- someone who counted all things as loss, someone who understood that he was looking towards a better kingdom even as he kept his feet on the ground while he was living.
Great words Jennifer!
A couple questions:
To what degree are apathy and triviality the besetting sins of wealth, leisure, and the pursuit of pleasure?
Also, it seems to me that the 'attention economy' we've created forms and requires both. We need just enough attention to direct, trigger, and reinforce certain behaviors (buying, voting, sharing), but not enough to warrant reflection, questioning, or challenge. How do you think our attention economy relates to the observations you're making above?
I'm struck by your conversation with campus ministers (being one ;-). It seems to me one of the challenges is a lack of (or a lack of awareness of) genuinely inspiring (dare I say 'authentic') Christians. The heroes of American Christianity have died or fallen. Are the 'rising voices' of Christian faith sufficiently different from 'influencers' to inspire holiness? Where are the saints whose lives are so full of love for God and neighbor, that they pray for 3 hours a day? Where are the Christians who can look at the churn of our culture with engaged indifference? It seems to me, to disagree with the chapel speaker, that their question was possibly misdirected? Rather than ask young people why they aren't giving themselves to a vision of Christian discipleship that requires something of them, perhaps we should ask why our embodiment of Christian discipleship is so dull and uninspired. What do you think?
Thank you for this reminder!!!! So good.
This topic reminds me of Paul's words to the Colossian church: "For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me." He knew that his efforts were being empowered by Christ and that ultimately it would be Christ in the Colossians (not Paul in the Colossians) that would be their hope of glory. And so he put forth the effort that was required of him in partnership with God.
I've been working a lot on some goal-setting in the last few days, and one thing that keeps convicting me is that the question "what do I want my life to look like" doesn't keep in sight the question of what does God want my life to look like. I'm trying to work through the tension of believing that He does use our desires to move and motivate us but also that building a life to suit myself isn't my whole duty. I find myself straying into triviality when triviality should be the accents if anything, not making up the substance of my life. But it's so, so true that our culture (and myself, as part of it) makes trivialities so important. Anyway, good food for thought, thank you!
This post pairs well with all that I've been thinking about in the wake of Aleksei Navalny's death. So far as I can tell, he was a follower of Jesus, and that is what enabled him to live dauntlessly, fearlessly, joyfully, hopefully in the face of persecution and death in the gulags. I have been so convicted by his present day example of courage and faith-- someone who counted all things as loss, someone who understood that he was looking towards a better kingdom even as he kept his feet on the ground while he was living.
Before I knew about death
You know human life first
If you know the life of the world first
come to know one's death naturally