"For a minute there..."

I think Radiohead said it well:

"For a minute there
I lost myself, I lost myself.
Phew, for a minute there,
I lost myself, I lost myself."

Maybe it was because we get frustrated. Maybe it is because we are busy. Maybe it's because we feel tired. I'm not sure, but I have neglected this blog, and in some ways I have been running hard and fast - some things productive, some things not so much. So, it's been quiet in this corner of the digital world. I don't necessarily apologize for it. But I take responsibility for the silence.

For a minute there. The song and the phrase linger in regards to me, to you, to us. We seem to be living in a culture of people who are losing themselves faster than ever before in history. Maybe it was my own (repeated) brush with another (daily) reminder that I am a sinner. A sinner in desperate need of a Saviour, a Christ. Whatever brought me back to this place of entry into blogging, I am grateful to God. And a part of me is saddened by the realization that many of the people around us are losing themselves, and not just for a minute.

The thing is, the culture feeds it. The stuff we buy feeds the illusion. The songwriters simultaneously create more of it, and rage against it. The celebrity bloggers mock/glorify it. We buy into the whole lie of the modern American sense of social connection - whether it be a coffee shops, concerts, bars, myspace, facebook, match.com, and a myriad of other outlets in our search for fulfillment. The lie is in the advertising: that we should lose ourselves in the music, the movie, the moment, the night. So, millions of people do what we all do - we recede into the lie that we can find our own way, on our own, all by ourselves. We end up surrounding ourselves with people who enable our whims, when we need people who will call us to responsibility and accountability.

For a minute there. People around us are lost. What am I doing to help them realize the hope that I know is in the redemption offered by Christ? Am I tagging along, in search of my own social agenda? Am I the enabler, the hypocrite sinner? How much loss do I have to observe and experience, before I stand up and speak to the fact that we need - and can experience - hope? it is a hope that can be bought, can't be counterfeited, and is free free free.

For a minute there, we lost ourselves.

Let's get back to learning how to change the world through the power of the Holy Spirit. It's the way back home, where we aren't lost anymore.