Do y’all ever wonder if maybe we are raising awareness for the wrong stuff? I’m a bit hesitant to even ask this question because I appreciate raising awareness for particular struggles. And let’s be honest, who of us would know anything about cholangiocarcinoma if it weren’t for February’s awareness month? There really is benefit to raising awareness for certain things. But something is missing…
Peruse this list of month long observances.
How many of those things are positive? Not many.
So here is what I’m wondering. Would it not be more beneficial for our health and society to make ourselves aware of all the amazing and wonderful things that God is doing in our world? Wouldn’t it be great to have an I Just Grilled An Awesome Steak month? I’m not calling for a neglect of raising awareness for many of these legit issues. We cannot just live in our world with rose colored glasses. But I’m not just making this stuff up, the Bible actually speaks to this.
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. (Philippians 4:8)
This is where we should place our focus. These are things which we should be constantly and consistently recognizing. It’s true that I wrestle with depression and anxiety. It’s true that some things have happened to me in my past which get their own month. It’s true that really bad junk is going on in our world and real people really suffer. But at the exact same time there is another story—a better story—that is taking place. I’d rather tell the better story. I’d rather do as Paul has said here. (This is the same Paul who could have had his Thorn Awareness Month or Abused Apostle Awareness Week).
There is wisdom in what God is calling us to do here in this text. While some (a few) things are helped by raising awareness and focus upon themselves most things are actually made worse when given all our attention. They cannot bear the weight of our identities. They aren’t big enough to move us to worship. They aren’t worthy to be claimed as reasons we were created.
I read the devastating news of another pastor who committed suicide the other day. This happening once is too many. But the frequency with which I’m hearing of these things is staggering. And I’ve been thinking for awhile now about depression/suicide and how it relates to pastoral ministry. I want to do something about this. I want to raise awareness. And I think it’d be helpful. I think at least in some ways it is helpful for folks to understand a bit about the weight and burden of pastoral ministry. It’s helpful for people to know that some folks talk to pastors like they would never talk to another human being. There are dehumanizing things which have sadly become part and parcel of the ministry of many folks. And so awareness is helpful.
But sometimes it isn’t. Sometimes it turns us inward. Sometimes it causes us to identify with a thing instead of a Person. Sometimes it turns our gaze away from Christ—who is able to bear every bit of our identities—and onto something else. Some of the things we see on these month long lists is, to me, a bit like raising awareness of Satan’s activity in our world. That’s fine to know where and how the enemy is attacking us. But we’re going to be crippled if we turn many of these into celebrations or if we don’t at the exact same time have an overwhelming amount of focus, attention, and awareness of the beautiful story our great God is telling.
Robert Murray McCheyne, a Scottish preacher, once said, “for every look to self take ten looks to Christ”. Maybe for our day we should say “for ever awareness month of self have ten awareness months of Christ”.
He’s bigger. He’s greater. And he’s doing something far more awesome. Let’s put our awareness there.
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Photo source: here
