hide and seek

Today, during our district's much anticipated welcome back ceremony, thousands of teachers watched a video about the recent explosion in social networking (we may have also done a choreographed dance to a Black Eyed Peas song...in pews...at a Baptist church...but I digress).  I'm still not exactly sure of the administration's purpose in presenting the "socialnomics" video, but one concept did stand out to me: "We no longer search for the news; the news finds us...In the near future we will no longer search for products and services; they will find us via social media."

For some reason, shifts in society have always struck fear in me, even when I did not live through those changes.  There is a sense of awe and humility in knowing that you contribute to something that you ultimately cannot control.  The idea of news and products and services finding us terrifies me.  It immediately brings to mind sermons and radio clips about spiritual warfare.  Peter warns us that our enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8).  I imagine the devil and his army creeping into our homes through our facebook pages and twitter accounts and youtube searches.  I know that those things in themselves are not evil (hello, blog!), but I think that they create great potential for temptation, complacency, and false community.  How easy it would be for the evil one to project his lies onto us by feeding us information about products and services.  The most charming and dangerous characteristic of the devil is that he has excellent customer service.  He is willing and able to come to us; we do not have to seek him out.

This has an overwhelming impact on our relationships with the Lord.  Is it any wonder that a generation that has become accustomed to quick delivery of information and goods has difficulty pursuing the Lord?  Do we even know how to look for God?  If everything is handed to us - what to believe, what to buy, where to go, what music to listen to - then why do we need to look for anything at all?  Everything we need will eventually come to us, right?  Perhaps.  But know that a multitude of other things that we don't need will also be within our reach.

So what do we do about it?  Do we boycott the internet and terminate our cell phone contracts?  For some of us, that may in fact be the wisest decision.  Paul encourages us to be devoted and watchful in prayer (Colossians 4:2), and Peter, just before describing the devil's schemes, tells us to be self-controlled and alert (1 Peter 5:8).  We need to be aware of our weaknesses and pray against the enemy.  Whether we acknowledge him or not, the devil does exist, and his burning desire is to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10).

I am not writing this to inspire fear or guilt.  I am writing it to remind myself that my pursuit of the Lord needs to be stronger than the devil's pursuit of me.  I definitely have not figured out exactly how to go about seeking the Lord with all my heart, but I trust that God will bless my disciplined efforts because the truth is, he wants to be found.  He has designed this game of hide and seek as a means of revealing his glory and allowing me to discover the mysteries of his boundless existence.  And when it comes down to it, we all know that the greatest buys are not those that find us; they are the shoes we found while digging through a clearance bin in the back room of a department store, or the antique necklace that happened to be tucked away in the corner of a flea market booth, or that old mantel that you found propped behind a stack of cracked and distorted mirrors in a consignment shop.  You hold onto those things because the stories of how you found them are as precious as the items themselves.