The LSAT, The Election, And The Struggle For Popularity

I've been super busy, lately. Mostly, I've been numbing myself from the real world because what's happening in this present hour is just too painful to look at. My struggles aren't unlike anyone else's. My coping mechanisms, though, are debatable. But, in any event, I'll just let you all in on what's been going on, lately:


 The LSAT.
Oh, my God. For those of you who aren't aware, the LSAT stands for the Law School Admissions Test. Coupled with the school application, the LSAT is 1/2 of the determining factor of one's acceptance into law school. Studying for this thing has been total chaos. On top of working 30 hours a week, I may get to study about 2 hours a day. This, of course, isn't ideal because if a remarkably high score is the goal (160-170), then one must study approximately 8 hours a day. Not to mention the LSAT, in order to be done well, needs to be studied for, for about a solid 3-6 months. So, if we calculate 40 hours * 5 days (excluding weekends) *  (however many days in a month - 2) * 6... we get: A WHOLE FREAKIN LOT OF HOURS I NEED TO STUDY.

And I've done maybe .125 of that.

On top of this, I'm also trying to successfully change jobs as I've just finished Paralegal School and successfully move to Washington, D.C. Therefore, as imagined, I'm very stressed out about this particular part of life.

As if that weren't enough, we have

The Election.
Donald Trump is now our President-Elect. I have to admit that I'm still baffled that Trump won the Election with all of the disparaging comments he made with regards to women, the disabled, immigrants, and more. But, I'm not surprised. I think Middle America was ready for a change. How much of a change we are going to receive has yet to be determined. I think that Donald Trump really pulled off some genius, cutthroat, Game of Thrones strategy, though. Think about it. 

The guy is married to an immigrant. He has women working for him within his Multinational Corp (which I'm sure some undocumented workers helped construct), and he lived in New York City. It's hard to be racist, sexist, and a bigot in NYC - no matter how red-to-blue the state turns every election cycle. Honestly, I think that Trump's platform was solely intended to be aimed at the small town, small-minded, Middle Americans who were so ready for a change that they ate every campaign slogan of Trump's up like they hadn't been fed in weeks. 

I really think that Trump's campaign promises were too radical to withstand Congressional approval, yet alone too radical to pass via Executive Order. Furthermore, I don't think that Trump honestly believed a single word that came out of his mouth. I think he just wanted to play the game and win, regardless of his own convictions. 

And he did. 

And here we are. 

My third point, and the one in which I want to spend the majority of my post writing about, because I think it's the one that's most relatable is

The Struggle For Popularity.
O.K. surely I'm not the only one who posts things on social media for attention, amirite? In our like-based culture, we have been conditioned to feed ourselves off of every "like" on our Instagram and Facebook post, and every retweet and reblog on Twitter and Tumblr. So SURELY I'm not the only one who dies a little inside each time my posts receive minimal attention. And surely I'm not the only one who dies a little each time I scroll down to see other "friends" of mine receiving literally 100+ likes on each of their posts, no matter how mundane. 

I mean, I'm not the only one, right?

If any of you are like me, then you probably feel less significant with every popular post you scroll past on your News Feed. In our media-filled culture, it's easy to confuse the lines of social media reality with actual reality. This is where reading Scripture will help. 

God so clearly spoke to me today when I was lamenting to Him about not being popular on the Internet. He simply said, 

"Christen, I don't need you to be popular. I need you to be faithful." 

I'd be lying on the virtual page right now if I said I had been radically changed and my perspective totally shifted with that statement. I'd also be lying if I said that I didn't have my own personal rebuttal with which to challenge God [I did]. 

But what about what God has to say? What about what He's already said about us & our identity in Him? Like,

"You didn't choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you could go and produce fruit and so that fruit could last." - John 15:16

"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people who are God's own possession. You have become this people so that you may speak of the wonderful acts of the one who called you out of the darkness into his amazing light." - 1 Peter 2:9

"Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God..." John 1:12

"For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority." - Colossians 2:9-10

"But whoever is united with the Lord is united with Him in Spirit." - 1 Corinthians 6:17

"For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin..." - Romans 6:6

"Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart. I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." - Jeremiah 1:5

"For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female; for you are all on in Christ Jesus." - Galatians 3:27-28

"Since then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God." - Colossians 3:1-3

When we allow the words of God to soak into our mind, heart, soul, body, and spirit, we start to become the image of God - the Imago Dei. When we start to walk out the fact that we are made in the very image of God Himself, all of the social media 'likes' fall by the wayside. All of our worries and trying way too hard to get our significant others or our wannabe significant others to notice and appreciate us become less of a priority and more of a byproduct of faithfulness; because, you see, when you are faithful to God, He is always faithful to you. 

So as much as it hurts to see that one friend who is an amazing singer, has three albums with her voice on it, has a platform at your church, and just seems to always have a Godly attitude no matter what, receive over 400 likes on her Instagram or Facebook, you know not to be shaken. That's because you realize that your identity isn't in how great you are in what you do, but who and Whose you are.

Therefore, I don't have to be upset that nobody is reading my book, that my social media posts aren't popular, and that I'm not leading worship right now. Most importantly, I don't have to be upset that my love interest isn't doing jack diddily about john duddily. Why? 

Because I belong to Jesus.

He's my source. He's my identity. In Him flows streams of Living Water; and my life is like channels of Living Water in the palm of His hands. As long as I am hidden in the blood of Jesus Christ, I will never go without. 

Neither will you. 

I wonder what it would be like if none of us had social media. I wonder how much more like Jesus we would look and behave like if we weren't so obsessed and compulsive with how many 'likes' we receive on our pictures of our face from this hundredth different angle and of our super-hipster, on fleek organic salad we made, hand-picked from our own greenhouse. I think we would be more like the Church that Jesus prayed and taught about without social media. Don't misunderstand, social media can be an amazing evangelism tool. But how many of us are actually doing that? 

Imagine the remarkable change the world would see in the Church if we all deleted our social media. 

Maybe that's what we should do.