Who Are You Following? Sample

Are You Following Cancel Culture?

In today’s culture, it’s almost like we can never get to the point where we may express our views on important issues without the risk of saying the wrong thing and ultimately being canceled. Most people I talk to actually want to talk about the hard things, but they have this massive fear of the consequences of today’s “cancel culture,” so they just stay quiet.

I don’t think we are doing anyone any favors by not allowing for different thoughts, beliefs, and ideas. It’s through this diversity of thought that we learn from one another, find better ways to do things, and ultimately grow. A few years ago, everyone was talking about tolerance. It feels like now tolerance is only a thing if you are agreeing with what the world tells you is popular and deemed acceptable to think—and that is constantly changing. It’s hard to keep up! The thing is, if we are too scared of making a mistake to talk, to ask questions, even to be wrong every once in a while, how will we ever grow? When I think about cancel culture, I think of a growing tree getting yanked out of the ground, its roots dangling, no longer touching the soil. All growth stops at that moment.

This generation is faced with obstacles stemming from social media that other generations never had to go through or even imagine. One of these is the ability to unfollow someone. Today we have the power to click a button that says Unfollow or Mute, and we opt out of seeing that person’s life and opinions.

It’s not necessarily a bad thing to unfollow someone, and there are certainly times when it’s a positive thing for you to remove something distracting or misaligned from your life. But we can’t deny that the trend of unfollowing is affecting how we communicate and interact with people in the real world.

Here’s how I look at it: everyone gets to follow whoever they want to and that fact shouldn’t be a big deal. It becomes a big deal when we bring the follow/unfollow mindset into our relationship with Jesus or with others. Yes, in life we can follow what we like and unfollow what we don’t, and that is fair. But if we get too comfortable with following and unfollowing things that make us happy or comfortable, we lose both the ability to create true relationship and the importance of the word follow.

Your relationship with Jesus needs to be a commitment, not a convenience. To follow Jesus means the Unfollow button is nowhere in sight. It is not in sight when you don’t like the way your day played out or when you don’t like a scripture you read. You choose to follow Jesus no matter what the world throws at you and no matter how uncomfortable or unpopular it gets. Many people want to follow Jesus privately but unfollow Him publicly; they know following Him will save their life but also cost them their reputation.

We’ve lost our ability, and sometimes even our desire, to commit. At the slightest provocation, we bail. We do that on social media, with celebrities, with friends, and even more so in our relationship with God—which is alarming because every relationship will get tough at some point. And when it gets tough, are we just going to walk away or unfollow because we did not like something?

Jesus set an example of sitting at the table with people who were not like Him, who lived very different lifestyles. Even His disciples were diverse in their workspace and lifestyles before they met Him. He got into conversations with a Samaritan woman when it was not culturally acceptable for a Jew to talk to a Samaritan. He did life with Mary Magdalene, who was once demon possessed. He befriended many tax collectors. He ate with sinners. When Jesus opened Himself up to people who were different from Him, He gave others the opportunity to form a relationship with Him and ultimately be led to eternal life. If you open up your life to people who think differently than you, you might get to lead them to the cross.

Jesus didn’t point us toward cancel culture. He didn’t lead us toward turning our backs on each other and quitting when things get hard. He set us on a much different path, one that is so much more rewarding, even if it is more difficult.

Respond

Have you or someone you know experienced cancel culture? Briefly describe the experience and the outcome. What did you learn?

Prayer

Lord, today I listen for Your voice. Please drown out the noise of the negative world around me. May I feel your presence!