FOMO

One thing I have been somewhat been wrestling with lately is is FOMO. I heard this term recently and had to look it up to see what it meant. Fear of Missing Out. I imagine we all suffer this to some degree at some point and maybe more at some times than other times.

There are things other people have and are doing and I think that would be cool to have that or do that. There are certain things I would like to do on my own and with my kids and family as well and to be honest, at times I can get a wild hair and it can be, not quite consuming, but it can take up a lot of my thought time and energy.

I heard a quote over the weekend that Ravi Zacherias said, “The loneliest moment in life is when you have just experienced that which you thought would deliver the ultimate, and it has just let you down.“

The bible tells us a few things about lovng the things of this world

Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 1 John 2:15

We read what Solomon wrote,

Then I became great and increased more than all who preceded me in Jerusalem. My wisdom also stood by me. All that my eyes desired I did not refuse them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart was pleased because of all my labor and this was my reward for all my labor. Thus I considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which I had exerted, and behold all was vanity and striving after wind and there was no profit under the sun. Ecclesiastes 2:9-11

Solomon had everything anyone could imagine wanting and desiring, wisdom, material possessions, status, fame… And look where he ended up.

I tell my kids every now and then that I want nothing more for them than to love Jesus with all their heart and to cling to Him at all times.

The tension is between the desires God gives us and the desire to find full fulfillment in Him and Him alone. I remember talking briefly with a friend about Psalm 37:4, Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart, and he mentioned that the desires of your heart is God.

So how do we find true, full fulfillment in Jesus. The Bible says to seek after God first and He will provide all we need. But what about the wants? How do we satisfy the desires to enjoy God’s creation and see the different parts and experience the different parts of God’s creation. I guess, when we look at God’s creation and some of the things of the world, we have to try and find God in those things and ask Him to reveal Himself in those things.