Part 3 of 5

We love a good story. We know that television drama isn’t real.  We are aware that medical doctors don’t actually narrate sappy summations at the beginning and end of their workday.  We are aware that Dancing With The Stars should really just be called “Dancing” since no real “star” has ever appeared on the show.  We are aware that the bachelor’s rose was purchased by a stage hand at the local grocery store a few hours before the taping started.  When we engage with the story, however, we don’t let those realities get in the way.

One commonality among this type of entertainment is self-centeredness.  The dramas, especially, focus on the personal problems of characters.   An entire show can be about one character’s ever-evolving “love life”.

More and more technology shares this self-centeredness everyday.  Just before writing this, I quickly glanced at Facebook.  Of the hundred or so “updates” I could see, all of them were about the person who posted it.  One person had posted: “Make me feel better i wanna feel better. You make me feel better… put me back together.”

I’ve watched as so many young people engage in a constant stream of communication with their boyfriend or girlfriend.    Whether through Facebook or through text messaging, the conversation never stops.  It takes brief periods off for sleep, but otherwise there is a constant, never ending conversation happening between these two people at every waking hour.  So what is the problem?

Drama…It’s self-centered, attention-seeking, demanding, unattractive drama.  When you have constant contact with someone twenty-four hours per day, you run out of valuable things to say.  Instead you cling to this person and create the problems, situations, and traps that give you something to talk about.  You start testing just how much they love you.  You demand from the other person something they simply cannot give you:  your own happiness.

No matter how frequently you can communicate with someone, no matter how special they seem, and no matter how much time you spend together, it will never be enough.  A person will never fill that void.  There is a void inside each one of us that yearns to be filled by God.  As long as we try to fill that emptiness with other people — as long as we seek self-worth through selfish means — we are failing to accept the perfect solution, Jesus Christ.

May we accept our love and complete fulfillment from Christ alone, and relate to each other in love, without manufactured drama or self-focused living.