The Fractures of Platforms

There is an intense social pressure these days to export ourselves. It’s as if we are not deemed real unless we are exported unto some kind of platform outside of ourselves.

Ads make exporting ourselves sound simple, but the work of finding the right platform to stand on is actually a web of complexity. As a result, our life becomes increasingly fractured by our fractured presentations of ourselves. Worse, we then have to keep up with and manage each one.

Time is swallowed whole by managing external presentations of ourselves, while our core being sits neglected – no growth, no maturing, no deepening – just performing. Meanwhile, any external platform we choose cause us to cut our lives into pieces, it can only fit a slither of who we are. We remain unknown and alienated, even to ourselves, no matter how many people think they know us through the small frames we choose to share. Then, we forget to share for a few days and subsequently cease to exist, all over again.

Exporting ourselves is not healthy, actually. We belong inside our own bodies, present in the real moments of our day. The greatest platform you and I will ever have is the one that God gave us. It is the one that sits square inside of our own physical chest and hosts the sum total of who we are. Our greatest platform is our own heart. Upon it, we live our lives. God is always watching, liking, loving, and commenting. If only we would listen.

Maybe our heart is not connected by the world wide web to thousands of people to like and love for our own bolstering sense of significance, but let us not diminish its significance. Our heart is connected to our own spirit, soul, and body – to which we are responsible in this life. God can determine who and how many people He wants to put before us in any given moment of our lives.

Stand up in real time, friends.

Life “on demand” is not real life.

Be with the person in front of you.

Let beautiful moments arrest you.

Invest in the people around you.

This is your life.

It is not to be exported.

Shared, yes.

But lived, first.

Some say, “build your platform.”

I say, “build your heart.”

Then, let your heart sing as loud as it possibly can.

Others may come watch.

But, it’s not for them.

It’s for Him.

Written July 29th, 2022