Attention Economy

Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live. — Isaiah 55:3

Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. — Hebrews 12:2a

We live in an attention economy. Hucksters and grifters constantly vie for our attention. Attention is money. All publicity is good publicity. The internet and new media channels make the attention economy seem modern. It's not. It's as old as Adam and Eve, the people of Israel, and a distracted Church. For our sake and the sake of the whole world, God wants to capture our attention and trust away from kings and idols. Even his wrath is meant to focus us.

Gratification

He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. — Hebrews 11:26

When Moses held to his identity in Egypt, he exchanged the trappings of the temporal for the riches of eternal life. Eternal life was, is, and is to come because God was, is, and is to come. Coming to know God is its own reward. I look ahead to the reward of knowing him more.

Come Closer

From space, Earth appears as a serene blue marble, reflecting the sunlight. So pleasant and inviting. Come closer, though, to find wars, hurricanes, earthquakes, fires, and mudslides. Social Media. From an arm's length away, we can imagine a neat and tidy world. But come closer to witness complexity: tradeoffs, unintended consequences, winners and losers, oppressors and the oppressed, the secure and the vulnerable, those we help and those we ignore. May we have the courage to let Reality invade our personal space. It's okay to feel discomfort and uncertainty. It's a cost of caring and being more genuinely helpful.