JR. Forasteros - September 10, 2015
A Screen Between Us
When there's a screen between us, it becomes easier to ignore our humanity. On one hand, we bully, shame and blame online much more readily than if we are face-to-face. On the other hand, because of this culture of online shaming, we rarely express our full selves online. Our social media selves are carefully-curated versions of ourselves we think the internet will approve of. How can we use our screens to facilitate life-giving relationships rather than hide from them?
From Series: "Social"
Most of us don't connect new technologies to our faith. After all, Jesus never had a Facebook profile. He didn't post on Instagram or even have a smartphone. No wonder we struggle to imagine the Bible has anything to say about this Brave New World we live in. But we can think theologically about the technology in our lives. We can learn not a new set of rules (How many episodes per day is too many when I'm binge-watching? How old should my kids be before they get smartphones?), but rather how to ask the right questions. Do our technologies help us bring about God's surprising, mustard seed kingdom here on Earth as it is in Heaven? How are our screens spiritual? Welcome to SOCIAL.
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Rag n Bone Man’s “I’m Only Human” tells a fascinating story of a broken relationship. Or rather, it implies that story, since to listen to the song is to feel as though we’re listening to one side of the end of a long, painful conversation.
Again and again, he insists that, whatever happened, “Don’t put your blame on me… I’m only human.”
I’m sorry I couldn’t solve your problems. I’m only human.
I’m sorry I couldn’t figure it out. I’m only human.
I’m sorry I couldn’t be honest. I’m only human.
I’m no Messiah. I’m only human.
The song expresses a sentiment we’re all well-acquainted with: we’re not God.
We can’t save the world – we can’t even save ourselves. So be careful not to put too much faith in me.
There’s some truth to that. We do often tend to put too much faith in other people, which can lead to a lot of heartache.
But that’s not what this song is about. This song is a person who has let someone else down. A person who doesn’t believe in himself. A person who says, “I’m only human.”
Rag n Bone man believes that to be human is to be a failure. To be human is to let other people down. To be human is to be limited, small, insignificant, unworthy of trust or faith.
When’s the last time you let someone down?
Maybe you didn’t return that phone call, or didn’t make it to their house. Maybe like me, you live far away from family and couldn’t make it back for a holiday. Or you failed to keep a promise.
We’ve all been where Rag n Bone man is – feeling the weight of our human limitations. We’ve all wanted to shrug and say, “Don’t put your blame on me! I’m only human!”
Friends, I want to offer us a word of encouragement today. To be human is to be finite, yes, but when we shrug our shoulders and say we’re “only human”, we’re lying about what it means to be human.
Today, we’re going to explore what it means to be human, and we’ll see that while to be human is to be limited, it is not to fail. We’ll see that to be human is a sacred calling, and that God wants us to live tall and proud to be human.
