Love Story Week 5: FOMO

The enemy steals joy by saying, "Look at what so and so is doing!" 

The Spirit breathes life by saying, "Look, at what I'm doing."

- Louie Giglio

Do you ever wrestle with FOMO? If you are female and breathing, it's likely you do.  (Have I made you paranoid?  Take this quiz to see if you have it.)

Fear of Missing Out is the enemy of contentment.  It's the enemy's primary strategy to get between me and God.  

I could write a lot about this, but Shauna Neiquist has said it so well.  Listen to what she says in this Bible study from Willow Creek.  And contemplate Psalm 16.

My whole life has been spent longing.  Longing for a boy.  Longing for that boy to notice me.  Longing for a dress or a sofa or a house or an opportunity or a cupcake—whatever's in the window.  Once a year, at Christmas, I let myself look at all the catalogs so I can do my Christmas shopping.  The rest of the year, I make Dennis throw them away when he sorts the mail.  Because they are full of things I don't even know exist, but once I discover them, I will neeeeeed them.

I've been thinking a lot about FOMO this week because I've been learning the story of Sarah's scheme to get a son.  

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had not been able to bear children for him. But she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, “The Lord has prevented me from having children. Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her.” 

- Genesis 16:1-2

There is something more dangerous than pressing your nose against the glass and wishing for what you do not have.  We were made to long.  And God delights in giving us goodness.  But when you try to control the form and timing in which His goodness comes to you, that's sin.  And it brings trouble. It brings heartache.  And a whole mess of complication.

"Why do you worry about these things?" Jesus asks in the Sermon on the Mount.  

People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, 

but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. 

- Matthew 6:32-33

Do I trust God to bring my life to me, or do I feel I need to go out and get goodness for myself?  That's the question at the heart of all these Bible stories we're learning this winter.  I worry about missing out when I forget that I am loved by the God who is bringing me the life He has always had in mind for me.

What if...she let herself be loved whatever way her Lord deemed best? 

- Ann Voskamp

Sarah didn't.  

Here's the story of Sarah's scheme and God's goodness.

Who will you tell this story to?

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