Last week I wrote about how times have altered over the last hundred years. This week I hope you will indulge me with another retirement related thought. I am genuinely looking forward to the future whatever it may hold and however long it may (or may not) last. I am not afraid of it but I know people in my peer group who are reluctant to leave the safety net of the work routine and all it brings.
There is a current debate about the use of social media by young people and the extent to which it should (or should not) be regulated and curtailed. Whether you are young or not the more available information about life’s happenings becomes, the greater the risk of suffering from the fear of missing out. Is it that fear that makes some people reluctant to embrace change even if the change should mark an improvement? The comfortable routine is full of connections with people; what may I be missing if…
Today’s reading come from Galatians 4:21-5:1 and records Saint Paul’s clever use of the differences between Abraham’s two sons, one born to a slave and one to a free woman, as an analogy for the earth-bound Jerusalem of the Old Testament and the visionary New Jerusalem of the New Testament. One is tied down by life and the other rises free of mortality and frailty. One is in dispute with God and the other is liberated by God.
The Apostle ends by writing that ‘it is for freedom that Christ has set us free.’
The fear of missing out may drive us on to look at and for more new things but may destroy all sense of adventure and keep us tied to all our usual dependencies? How do you feel about it – will you stay with the unadventurous crowd, always in lockstep with fashion or will you strike out alone were the spirit leads?
A Prayer
God of the open space and the expanse of beach and ocean, field and forest, mountain and valley, set me free from the fear of missing more of the same to embrace the best of what may be different. Help us all to serve you in new ways as we grow in you and learn to find the freedom for which Christ has set us free. In him we rejoice and for him we give our thanks. Amen.