You are Known!

I’ve been taking Facebook quizzes this week. So far, I’ve found out that I resemble the Muppet’s Swedish Chef (bork bork!), that I should have majored in nursing, that I belong in Romania, and that if I were one of Jesus’ disciples, I would have been Judas. I should be a writer, and if I were a country singer, I would be Tim McGraw. I am pretty sure there were others. My Downton Abbey personality. My Middle Earth personality. Which Disney villain I am. Too many to even remember.

These quizzes are fun, but hardly accurate. FB quizzes are mostly based on personality characteristics and generalities. They are guesses. Sometimes they get pretty close, but they don't know us. They don't collect enough information to peg us well. They also don't take into account a calling, passion, or the life events that shape us. They don’t take into account the stuff that bugs us. They don’t know our fears, our hopes, or our dreams, and they certainly don’t take into account a God who loves us and directs our paths.

So, why do we take them?

We want to be known. We want somebody to really see us, to understand what makes us tick, to see us as significant.

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! Psalm 139:23

If the Psalmist had lived today he might have been taking Facebook quizzes, too. Fortunately, he turned to someone who could look beyond basic personality traits and see his heart. He turned to the only One who could really know him, the One who created him. 

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. Psalm 139:13-16

You are known. Perfectly known, and beyond that, you are significant, created with purpose. 

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Ephesians 2:10

God loved you before you ever heard his name. He wanted you, and he directed your forming. He knows your inmost being, all of it, both the good and the bad stuff. He created you with purpose. You are important to him. He loves you exactly as you are. 

We don’t need Facebook tests to tell us who we are, to be known by others, to feel significant, or for any other purpose than entertainment. Facebook is a fun way to stay in touch with people, but it will never be a substitute for knowing and being deeply known. It can never fully love us. Only God can do that. And he already does! 

We are all so busy, too busy to waste time searching for something we already have. I’m not saying Facebook is a waste of time (of course it is!). It has some good applications. We can pray together there. We can encourage each other. It’s the only way I know to get my blog out there. But if we want to know others and be deeply known, we need to get off the computer and see each other face-to-face. If we want to know the One who knows us, we need to spend time in prayer, in his Word, and with others in the body who reflect his nature. He wants to be with us. Hallelujah!

So, get off Facebook or Twitter or LinkdIn or Instagram or Pinterest. Invest in a relationship that is real. God is waiting.