The title of this blog is inspired by the "click-bait" phenomenon that pervades the internet. You know those "advertisements" that fill your Facebook or news pages that entice you with overblown descriptors. My favorite is the one that starts with "You will not believe what 'so-in-so' looks like now!" These overblown headlines have also invaded our actual news providers. We are living in a time of "EXTREMELY OVER STATED STATEMENTS ABOUT SOMETHING THAT MAY OR MAY NOT BE IMPORTANT!"
The urge is to encourage or in the case of click-bait, trick, us into reading what a particular author wants us to see. In doing so they gain revenue from the number of people "clicking" on their content. As you can see from my numbers I am not a heavy hitter in the blogging world!
This phenomenon does lead me to wonder about how this affects our anxiety. When every headline begins with "BREAKING NEWS" to just give us another tidbit about an event that may or may not be important, we are encouraged to think that everything is important and we should probably be worried. This anxiety driven pattern can leave us overwhelmed. When we are overwhelmed we become incapacitated; unable to make decisions. This is hard on our spiritual lives.
As people of faith, one of the important works we are called to do is to bring peace to our communities; but that is hard to do when we are so worn out and worried. One of our church members confessed, "I find myself reading the Wall Street Journal more than scripture during the week." What do you do more than reflect on God's Word during the week? How does this affect your spiritual life? How does reading or playing Candy Crush more than praying lead us to be disenfranchised from our neighbor? How does watching a news channel on your television for over an hour a day make you more or less a good neighbor?
I confess that I, too, fall for these click-bait distractions, play games endlessly, and read the news that comes across my feeds. It is apparent in my own life how this negatively affects my spiritual life. I am not going to make a New Years resolution about it because I know how horrible I am at keeping such promises, but I am going to start paying attention more to what is important and praying more in the moment. One thing I have learned over the years is that I am a better husband, a better father, a better neighbor and a better pastor when I spend more time in prayer and scripture reading.
Martin Luther is quoted as saying, "I have so much to do today, that I am going to spend the first three hours in prayer." This is a good reminder for us to put God front and center of our lives. In doing so we create a better spiritual filter that will help us avoid those "click-bait" demons that want us afraid.
I hope 2019 will not be horrible, I hope we find new ways to be more focused on how we can bring peace to our communities. Blessings to you and may the Prince of Peace be an ever present encouragement and sign of hope.
