Who Are You Following?

Who are you following? 

Probably about 1,000 different people on Instagram. A few hundred more on TikTok. All your snapchat friends. And if you’re an old soul like me then throw in a few more relatives on Facebook. 

And every time you scroll mindlessly through your “for you” page you are also following a computer algorithm whose sole purpose is to keep you from putting your phone down. 

Every morning you get up and base your decisions on something. What to wear, eat, drink, watch, and listen to. You are all following something or someone. 

So, here’s the question, is who or what you are following life-giving? Did that Netflix show you just binged leave you feeling hopeful or hopeless? Do you put your phone down after scrolling through social media feeling purposeful or purposeless?

I’m not asking you these questions to put you on a guilt trip. These are the exact questions I had to ask myself and upon self-reflection, I realized that I didn’t love the answers. 

I realized that I was following the “world”. I had to know which sandals were in for the summer and which ones were not. I had to know which water bottle was in and which ones were out. I had to know which couples were still together and which ones were not.

If you are like me then you know how easy it is to get wrapped up in all the hype. It’s so easy to pick up your phone and forget to put it down. I still do this all the time! But I’m also realizing that following the world is exhausting because one minute it’s cool to have a Hydroflask and the next minute you need a Stanley. (Or now I hear it’s an Owala?) I’m realizing that there is always going to be something new and better out there that the world is going to tell me that I need. That there is always going to be someone out there who’s life looks more glamorous than mine. I’m realizing that following the world is always going to put me on a vicious cycle of asking: “What if?”, “What more?”, and “What else?”. 

I’m realizing that there is a much better option out there to follow than the world.

And that’s Jesus.

Over and over again Jesus tells us in the Bible to follow him.

He tells Peter and Andrew to drop their fishing nets and “Come, follow me.” (Matthew 4:19)

He tells Matthew who is sitting at the tax booth to “Follow me.” (Matthew 9:9)

He tells us, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23)

I know what you are thinking…that sounds pretty intimidating. In this world we are very rarely taught to deny ourselves. We preach “my truth”, “you do you”, and “self love”. We turn to self-help books for the answers because we think that somehow we can help ourselves. Sometimes we can, but deep down we are all broken people. Loving yourself is important, but loving others and Jesus is even more important. And your truth isn’t really truth at all. 

Gasp. I know. But Jesus said to follow him for a reason.

If you buy a piece of furniture that you have to put together yourself then you are likely going to read the instruction manual. In doing so you aren’t going to read just any instruction manual but you are going to read the one that the maker of that piece of furniture wrote. Why? Because the designer of that piece of furniture would know how to put it together better than anyone else.

So why do so few of us read the instruction manual written for us by our maker?

In January of last year it was reported that only 39% of American adults read the Bible three or more times a year. Only 24% engaged with the Bible weekly. That means most of us are getting our instructions on how to live from somewhere else or someone else. 

And we wonder why we’re all anxious, depressed, and unhappy. 

That is no knock-on mental health struggles but think about it. Most of us are looking for truth in all the wrong places. Social media can be great. You are reading this blog post because of social media. It’s great for finding new recipes, keeping up with friends, and DIY hacks. But it can’t be your instruction manual on how to live. If you use other people's highlight reels as your instruction manual than you are almost always going to find ways to be unhappy with your own life.

Jesus tells us in John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life.”

Knowing Jesus is the only way to eternal life in heaven. That is definitely true, but I think most of us don’t realize that he’s also “the way” on this side of heaven too.

Following him and knowing him is also the way to a better life on Earth. 

Why? Well for starters God is our maker and he made us in his image (Genesis 1:27). 

Unlike the ever changing fashion trends, he is never changing. (Hebrews 13:8, Revelation 1:8)

Unlike the algorithm on your phone, he truly is all knowing. (Matthew 10:30, Psalm 147:4)

And most importantly, God is love. (John 3:16)

Some of those things might not make a lot of sense to you. For a long time, they didn’t make sense to me either. I loved to follow the world, but the reality was that following the world was kind of depressing. It didn’t give me peace and it certainly didn’t leave me filled with joy, but in following Jesus I have been able to find those things and so much more. It's helped me realize that the only reason the grass was always greener over there was because I kept forgetting to water mine.

So who are you following? Are you reading the right instruction manual? Following Jesus takes more than just hitting a button, but I can promise you that it’s worth it.