Week 12 – March 17-23, 2024: Are You Missing Out?

This week’s daily readings:

Week 12 - March 17-23, 2024

This week’s devotional:

Are You Missing Out?

by The Rt. Rev. Brian Bethke

Scripture:

When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.” 

— Exodus 32:1 (NIV) 

Reflection:

For almost two decades, a unique term has weaved its way through our vocabulary thanks to social media. This term is used to describe apprehension and/or anxiety caused by believing we might be missing out on some piece of information, gossip, a social gathering, or an event. It’s called the “Fear Of Missing Out” or “FOMO” for short. We experience FOMO as a lack of impulse control triggered by information received, plus an extreme desire not to miss anything. Because of FOMO, people end up changing their plans, overcommitting, stepping over personal boundaries, damaging relationships, violating values and ethics, and doing all sorts of things just to feed this insecurity and the desire to be “seen.” Being “seen” becomes the motivation of the heart that drives them to worship idols of the heart. 

As you know, worshipping idols violates one of God’s foremost commandments. In the Bible passage above, anxiety caused God’s people to ignore these instructions and follow false idols. Don’t be like them and let your feelings deceive you. Idols destroy. Christ redeems. In Christ you are seen, secure, and are missing nothing, so follow him!

Do you have FOMO? Do you feel the need to be seen? Do you feel secure? What idol(s) of the heart is God calling you to destroy?

Prayer:

Holy God, I come to you to relieve my anxious feelings, as only you can do. Don’t allow the pressures of today and my own insecurities cause me to look elsewhere. I know I’m not missing out when I am included in your Kingdom. How wonderful to know that you see me, you love me, and you long for my worship! Give me wisdom and strength to turn away from the idols of my heart, always looking towards Jesus and waiting for him to redeem me. I pray this in his powerful name. Amen