For the last few days, my social media has been overrun with the little miss character. After a few weeks of enduring this little craze, it will likely be on to the next thing. The next pointless, no one will remember thing.

Social media is a good tool for staying connected, but it also exposes how short our attention spans have supposedly become and how easily we are pulled into nonsense. I often hear church leaders say people can’t handle more than a thirty to forty-five-minute message. Yet we can binge-watch ten episodes in a series in one sitting and have no problem sitting spellbound during a two-hour movie. It’s not about what people can endure but what people desire.

Social media has become a distraction for many. And the church has been sucked into using the gimmicks of the world to attract attention.

Hebrews 12:1-3 CJB “So then, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us, too, put aside every impediment — that is, the sin which easily hampers our forward movement — and keep running with endurance in the contest set before us, ² looking away to the Initiator and Completer of that trusting, Yeshua — who, in exchange for obtaining the joy set before him, endured execution on a stake as a criminal, scorning the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³ Yes, think about him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you won’t grow tired or become despondent.”

2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1 CJB “Do not yoke yourselves together in a team with unbelievers. For how can righteousness and lawlessness be partners? What fellowship does light have with darkness? ¹⁵ What harmony can there be between the Messiah and B’liya‘al? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? ¹⁶ What agreement can there be between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God — as God said, “I will house myself in them, . . .and I will walk among you. I will be their God, and they will be my people.” ¹⁷ Therefore Adonai says, “‘Go out from their midst; separate yourselves; don’t even touch what is unclean. Then I myself will receive you. ¹⁸ In fact, I will be your Father, and you will be my sons and daughters.’ says Adonai-Tzva’ot.” 7:1 Therefore, my dear friends, since we have these promises, let us purify ourselves from everything that can defile either body or spirit, and strive to be completely holy, out of reverence for God.”

We are entertaining ourselves to spiritual death. It’s time for Jesus to be enough for us Christians again. I am weary of seeing worship in pitch-black sanctuaries when our Bibles say that Heaven is full of light. I am tired of worship teams that imitate the world in their sound and in their dress. I’m not saying we have to be fuddy-duddies, but it is so apparent that we have begun chasing fleeting success the way the world defines it. We build our churches to the specified likes of the world. What they have won’t save them, so why are we recreating it in the church?

My heart cries with the Scripture, come out from among them and be separate. It is time to cast off pragmatism and come to the altar with a broken heart and say awaken us to holiness, Lord, awaken us to the beauty of the Son of God. It’s time we return to our first love.

What they have won’t save them, so why are we recreating it in the church?