Wake Up, Look Up

Hello everyone, and thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up. a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Zach Weihrauch, and in today's episode, we're asking, is isolation cool now? This is prompted by an article I read in the Atlantic recently about a new trend online. The rising trend of a solitude influencer. Now, a solitude influencer is a social media Persona built around the idea that this person wants to, and for the most part, lives their life alone. People like lana Issa, a 24 year old in Toronto who has almost 200,000 Instagram followers, and they watch her basically spend quiet evenings at home. She shop alone, eat alone, do life alone, and live in solitude. These influencers use hashtags like alone, not lonely, and introvert diaries. And they're really working to present solitude as a peaceful alternative to the drama, demands and disappointments of human relationships. for the most part, their followers are from two different groups. People who, who already live alone and appreciate the validation, or people who wish they did. People who are overwhelmed by the obligations of family or work or marriage or society and long for a day that can be by themselves. Now, Issa, like a lot of isolation, influencers, solitude influencers, admits that her own isolation is really born out of negative experiences with betrayal, bullying, broken trust. It's a retreat away from pain. this is an interesting trend because it begs the question, is isolation, at least from a biblical perspective, is it an acceptable life choice? Can you follow Jesus in obedience, participating in the kingdom in isolation? And the answer to that is no. it really is, it's no. For two reasons. Number one, it is not healthy for people to be alone. God said that, by the way, in Genesis 2 when he made Eve for Adam. One of the ways you know that, by the way, is that these Instagram followers, ironically, selling isolation, selling solitude, post their lives online for hundreds of thousands of followers. In other words, they don't actually live in solitude at all. And while actual human experience and human interaction might have wounded them, they're still craving human interaction. They're just doing it through what they think is the safe distance of the Internet. Even Lana Issa, the solitude influencer whom the article's about, admits that one day she would like a small circle of close friends. this is a sign that the solitude they're selling is not actually working for them. But I'll also add this. There is a spiritual component to community. Look, the writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 10 says, do not neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another gather every day together. What he's saying in Hebrews is he's saying part of following Jesus is belonging to the people of Jesus. in America, we tend to think of Christianity as an individual religion. I have my relationship with God one through me for Christ. But in the Bible, the Christian life is not pictured that way at all. When I'm born again, I'm born again into the people of God. I now belong to a group. This is Peter's point in 1 Peter 2. You were once not a people, but now you are a, people. I've been brought in to the people of God, the kingdom of God as expressed through a local church. And the writer of Hebrews is saying you need to actually get together with that local church. Now I understand there's a difference between extroverts and introverts. People who gain energy, people who from being around people and people who are depleted. And I think there's room for different personality expressions. But that's not what we're talking about here. We're not really talking about introverts who don't want to stay at the party as long as an extrovert. We're talking about people who are doing life on their own and who are even in there posting online, acknowledging it isn't working for them. And it won't because it's not the way we were designed and it isn't the way your spiritual life is designed. Either way, remember that Jesus said the whole law of God boils down to this. Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Pretty hard to do if you never see your neighbor. So if you are gradually moving towards or fascinated with solitude and isolation as a life choice, I challenge you to let Jesus lead you in this area. You don't have to become an extrovert, but you do need to be an obedient follower of Jesus who loves his or her brothers and sisters in Christ. Hey, thanks for checking out Wake Up, Look Up. For more content, be sure to visit the Christ Community Chapel app or website cchapel.com.

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