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Sep 18, 2019 08:00am

Getting Rid of FOMO

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FOMO (the fear of missing out) ain’t dead is it? Like, here I am age 28 and I still scroll through Instagram with a sad heart! How does it stop?

Social media floods you and me with pictures of where we’re not every day. At least 4,127 times an hour (lol) I get to see who I’m not with, what event I was not invited to, what food I’m not eating, where in Italy I’m not spending the summer.

As our thumbs flick through various feeds, we start comparing the highlight reel of our friends’ lives to the ordinary-ness of our lives. That’s not healthy.

It has taken a toll on us. A fear has plagued our hearts. So much so that we’ve come up with that savvy little acronym for it. FOMO. Having an acronym normalizes it. But is that good?

Constantly, we’re wondering what others are doing. Just last week I was having a blast with some friends, but then a thought struck me – “But what if I was with my other friends…? Would I be having more fun with them?”

Scarier, to try and fix our hearts, we fight back by injecting our highlight reels onto our media feeds. “Take that, world! I’m cool too!” And, thus, we’re sucked into the vortex of presenting a life that doesn’t match with RL at all.

So…how does it end? Three thoughts.

1) Name it, you are missing out.

Wait, what? Yes, you heard that right. Guys, there is a power that comes with naming things. There is a freedom attached to simply admitting, “Yeah, I can’t/won’t be everyone and I can’t/won’t do everything…and that’s okay.”

I still wonder what life would’ve been like had I pursued medicine or music instead of ministry. I am missing out on those lifestyles. What would life be like if I moved to Denver or Copenhagen? I am missing out on everything happening in those cities. Even now, I’m missing out on Netflix because I’m writing an article.

Naming it helps. A lot.

2) Jesus is not missing out.

He is everywhere, fully present, all the time. Which means, the creating and sustaining Friend of sinners is totally hanging with you non-stop. You might need to read that sentence again.

If this is true, that the King Himself, enjoys hanging with you…then you’re kinda the coolest on the block. You’re on a first-name basis with God. Wherever you are – that is, wherever God has you right now– is precisely the best spot on the planet, because He is there.

3) A day comes when FOMO ends, once and for all.

Even in heaven you’ll have limits, did you know that? Humans have always and will always be limited. The schmancy term is “human finitude” – we are finite (opposite of infinite). Which means stuff will go down in heaven that you won’t be apart of. But, get this. It won’t bog you down! You’ll know, at a deep level, that you fit it. That’s FOMO’s slayer, right there. Fitting in.

The power of our future with Christ is strong enough to impact our present life with Christ.