So I heard the term “FOMO” a couple of years ago.
The Fear of Missing Out.
I think FOMO is half about our identity and trying to prove ourselves, and half about just loving life and wanting to be a part of many things. But you know what? God doesn’t necessarily want me to be a part of many things and definitely not everything (but when I think separately of each thing I want to do and can’t, this makes me sad!)
I love the movie Divergent and I think I love it because, A) clearly, a strong female lead, and B) the diversity that can be all inside one person, which I deeply relate to. But I’m 46 years old, and I own two books called Tired of Being Tired. I’m not joking. One Tired of Being Tired is by Jessi Lynn Hanley, and the second Tired of Being Tired is by my favorite author Jess Connolly. Ever since maybe even high school, but definitely after I was missionary short term in Africa, I have been tired. And I have had to try to figure out not only what is physically making me tired, but what beliefs, habits, and thought patterns are keeping me on the hamster wheel.
Let me tell you, FOMO can make a person tired. Can make a person discontent. Can keep us from being where God wants us to be. Can make us feel like nothing we do or experience will ever be enough, really.
I don’t know how I haven’t been able to see in the past that at least 50% of the stuff running around my head are ideas that aren’t for right now, and that don’t even have to happen at all.
What if we were content to just be our real selves, in love, with the people God put in our path, using our gifts…and not striving for more?
It takes a lot of prayer, time, and wisdom to choose what we will put our energy, money, and creativity toward. It takes a lot of restraint. It takes a lot of trust in God, rather than ourselves. No wonder we’re tired if there is literally no space for all the things our hearts and hands are in.
I can know for myself that it is a mindset shift to the Joy of Missing Out, to a pause that levels the field – like a seventh year rest for the farmland. What a JOY to know that part of knowing Jesus means that NOTHING we could “miss out on” is really all that pivotal if we are following Him. Ah, now that’s good! Come on!
Rest, missing out, living a simpler life— maybe these are our rebellious acts against self-sufficiency, self-righteousness, and self-protection?
It’s nice to know that isn’t a failure or even a disobedience to God to say: That is such a great idea! That would help people! That would be really fun. BUT…it costs something I don’t have to spend right now.
Ultimately I want to live in JOY not FEAR…
So come on, JOMO. Welcome in.
Do you struggle with FOMO? What is God saying about your particular area of struggle with this? What would you need to lay down “for the joy” to settle in fear’s place?
