Many of us experience reality through digital paintbrushes of CNN or Fox or WaPo.
Facebook or Twitter or Instagram feed us from waking until sleeping.
YouTube’s logarithm reinforces its colleagues as it doubles down on our channels of choice.
Excitement and anxiety ensue. Fear and worry tick up. Comparisons and competitions kick off.
The Google-enhanced worldview overwhelms our micro realities.
Instead of our feet living and dancing where they’re planted they head off for other geography. Our hearts and heads follow.
We become only partially present at dinner or while on the walk. We take on the emotions of the world rather than embrace the emotions of the son needing help or spouse asking an opinion.
Pray for the world. Lament for the world. But live on your block. In your apartment complex. With your people.
Make living local your defining lens. Local as in the family you share space with. The neighbor you share a fence with. The colleague you share common work with.
Jesus routinely changed “out there” discussions into “right here” questions. No hypothetical for Him. He always makes it about us and them, here and now.
He hid the ongoing joys of life in the relationships we invest in. Such joys beg unearthing. Their investment returns ten-fold.
Live local. Discover what flourishes from the people within arms reach. Thank Jesus for planting you here. Today.