Sound of Surviving Blog

The other night, I was scrolling through Instagram, and every single post or picture I saw seemed to capture the best of everything: the best of friends, family, vacations, nights out, houses, jobs, and so on. I started feeling terrible about my own battered life and how it didn’t really have these picture-perfect moments in it. Then I realized that no one posts about these things on social media. After all, no one wants to seem less than perfect. We NEED the world to accept us, to deem us and our lives as worthy, or good enough. But no one has it all together, even if their Facebook profile claims they do.

The truth is, though, that no one’s life is as perfect or as flawless as it shows on our screens. Just because we see things from the outside of others’ lives does not mean that what’s on the inside of their lives is perfect. Unfortunately, we live in a world where we are forced to plaster a smile on our faces and only show the world what it wants to see, the good stuff. Then, while we are dealing with the chaos and mess of our lives, we tend not to post much during those times, because it’s deemed as unacceptable not to have something “good” to post about.

I often wonder about what Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, and Twitter, and all other social media platforms’ feeds would look like, if everyone posted what is really happening in their lives. What if, instead of a picture at the beach, we saw instead a picture of an empty pantry, or a “position terminated” notice, or pleas for prayers for a loved one struggling with substance abuse, or for their children battling physical or developmental illnesses and conditions? Or if, instead of couples with elegant new houses, we saw tear-streaked faces. It might encourage us to physically reach out to one another, to say, “You too? I thought only I felt that way”. It might inspire us to lift one another and encourage one another.

But in reality, our messiness makes us feel that we’re not truly going to be accepted by anyone in this world, but there is one who tells us to come to Him as we are. One who sees our flaws and our weaknesses, our sins, and our chaos and loves us despite all of these things. This is our Father in Heaven. God never expected us to be perfect. He knows we’re not. That’s why he gave his only begotten son for us, that our sinful, flawed nature would not cause us to perish, but have peace and eternal life in Him. We have this ultimate gift waiting for us in our inbox; we just have to choose to click accept and apply.

For God says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30). He does not call us to come well-rested, but tired, our burdens weighing down on us.  

We struggle so hard, trying to be accepted and deemed worthy by this world, to post the right pictures and to tweet the impeccable posts, in the hopes that others would think, “Oh wow, they have an amazing life”. But we are deeply and utterly mistaken. We will not find that acceptance here; we are looking to the world for what God has already offered us. That gift is in his outstretched hand. It always has been there.  He is just waiting for us to reach out and take it.