Two truths to keep social media from driving you crazy this Christmas

Inadequate. Inferior. Discouraged. Lonely. Overstimulated. Covetous.

My Facebook friends used these adjectives to describe how social media makes them feel during the holidays. Or, let’s be real, anytime.

How can we stay sane as we see perfectly decorated trees, jaw-dropping vacations, and photo-ready families doing all the cool stuff? What’s really happening to our hearts as we scroll through post after post?

At the heart of our social-media problem is comparison.

Comparison’s that amazing ability we have to analyze our life in relationship to the lives of others. While scanning the list of how social media makes my friends feel, two feelings jumped out: inadequacy and overwhelm.

Inadequacy comes from what we see and how we see ourselves.

We see their Pinterest-worthy table setting and notice ours is more of a Pinterest fail. We see their lavish vacation and remember we’re at home…again. But it’s not just what we see that fuels our inadequacy, it’s how we see ourselves.

Inadequacy whispers in our ear, “You’re not____” and we fill in the blank. We believe that we’re never enough.

What we see on the screen shapes how we see ourselves, which leads us to feelings of discontentment jealousy, inferiority, and irritability, and all these feelings funnel into our identity.

But we feel more than just inadequate as we scroll, we also feel overwhelm.

Not only do we feel pressured by our inadequacy, we also feel overwhelmed by the number of posts and the types of images we see. We’re bombarded by cute and perfectly-lit pictures of the beautiful, always clean, thematically-decorated homes occupied by their dressed-for-the-season kids, and we read the captions about their busy schedules full of fun, fun, fun.

Their perfection compared with our inferiority makes us want to throw up in our mouths a little.

Our overwhelmed heart whispers, “You should ______” and we fill in the blank. We believe that we should do more, clean more, plan fun more, shop more, decorate more.

What we see on the screen informs what we should do, which leaves us feeling insignificant, mentally cluttered, anxious, and overstimulated. And all these beliefs funnel into our performance and activity.

Is there hope amidst these feelings of inadequacy and overwhelm?

Social media breeds comparison, but Jesus offers truth.

Jesus reminds us that we aren’t inadequate or overwhelmed.

Christ says that we are not inadequate.

If you’re like me, you draw your identity from what you’ve done and how others perceive you. It’s hard to let that go. A try-hard girl gets shaken when she realizes that she spent decades believing this lie.

It’s hard to believe the truth that our worth is based on what Christ has already done and that He delights in us as we are… because we reject the nearness of God.

There. I said it.

Because we judge ourselves so harshly, because we see all the ways we fail to measure up to some self-defined, arbitrary measure of “good enough,” we can’t believe that God would find us beautiful, precious, or holy. So we stiff-arm Him and reject His nearness.

We fail to receive what is already true.

What if we asked God to show us how high and deep and wide His love is? What if we asked Him to make it clear that we are rooted in His love? What if we received the truth that we are sufficient in Him and through our weakness?

Christ says that we are not overwhelmed.

If you’re like me, you see yourself as inadequate, and you’re not doing all you should. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the perfection we see and to think that the solution is to do more. But this is not what Christ says at all.

In fact, our enemy is the one telling us that, if we do more, we will be more. This lie demands that we try to push, hustle, and strive, which leaves us feeling hurried and hassled like sheep without a shepherd.

Sisters, Jesus’ last words on the cross weren’t “Make me proud.”

He didn’t endure our sin and shame and then tell us to get to work. His last words to us were “It is finished.” His words were our signal that everything is taken care of for our salvation. We can’t add anything to His saving work.

The way of Jesus invites us to rejoice in what He’s already done.

What if we asked God to show us how He sees us? What if we asked God to lead us away from the overwhelm toward a more gentle way? What if we dared to come to Him when we’re tired to learn the unforced rhythms of His grace?

Inadequate. Inferior. Discouraged. Lonely. Overstimulated. Covetous.

These are adjectives my Facebook friends used to describe how social media makes them feel. Yet it’s possible to stay sane as we see perfectly decorated trees, jaw-dropping vacations, and photo-ready families doing all the cool stuff.

It’s possible to stay sane as we scroll through post after post by remembering that the way of Jesus tells us that we’re more than adequate—we are beautiful, precious, and holy. The way of Jesus tells us that, instead of doing more, we can rest in what He’s already done.

Let’s flip those adjectives around and remember that we are enough, invaluable, encouraged, surrounded by love, rested, and content.

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