Living Life Through A Lens

I'm looking out over the ocean and amazed at the expansiveness of it. It is easy to feel small and insignificant. It is easy to get lost in the daily grind of life and forget our importance in this world. We only get one life and all too often that one life is filled with mundane tasks that seemed important at the time. That isn't to say that daily duties like working and taking care of a family aren't important because they are, through those tasks we are able to forge a living, but these tasks shouldn't define our lives. My own life has become defined by work and by education and by relationship status. And when I didn't meet the criteria I had hoped for or that society had deemed necessary then I was left feeling lost and hopeless. I know better than to measure myself against other people, but there are times that I still find myself doing it and I always feel I don't measure up. That's because I don't. See God didn't make me to be the same as the people around me so no matter what I do I will never measure up to them. Even if I did everything the same and was some how able to replicate their circumstances I wouldn't be able to duplicate their life. But that's a good thing because it gives us the chance to discover life on our own and make decisions that shape our life into our own unique self that no one else can duplicate.

I say this knowing that this is an area I struggle with. It isn't just about the lives of the people around me, but about my own expectations for my life. In general, unmet expectations lead to disappointment, frustration, and a sense of failure on our part. Expectations are formed on many things and define the decisions we make. Today, as I walked around Monterey, I noticed how many people are living their life through the lens of their phone, even as they are with other people. This isn't a new trend and I'm guilty of doing it too, but it made me think about the consequences of living through phones or social media. Expectations are being formed on the interactions we have through social media; unrealistic expectations. 

The last few months I have slowly withdrawn from social media and I have discovered two things:

1. Not having other people's accomplishments in my face 24/7 has allowed me to recognize my own, which means fewer unmet expectations.
2. Not seeing their updates (friends and family) has made me feel disconnected. 

The reality is that connections aren't made online, but forged in person. If I feel disconnected it is because I am not maintaining a relationship with them and not because I didn't read their latest post. Unfortunately, I have allowed social media to be the source of connections and have lost relationships. I don't want to just appear to be a part of their life, but to actually be a part of their life. A relationship prevents us from viewing them as competition we have to measure up to. I encourage you to take a step back and to see if your connections are only as deep as social media. And look up, enjoy the moment, and don't view the ocean only through the lens of your phone.