What to do with FOMO?

Last updated on: March 12, 2013 at 2:28 pm by Sarah Ngu

What to do with FOMO? 2013-03-12T14:28:33-04:00 Sarah Ngu

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Throughout college and in the post-college years many people have told me to “try something new,” “take risks,” and “don’t leave any regrets.” The “good life” is pitched as hopping from job to job, traveling from country to country, in a who-knows-how-long Wanderjahr. The globalized world is our oyster.

I have recently read A Journey Worth Taking, a book on meaning and calling by Pastor Charles Drew. The book showed me that behind the wanderlust-talk is a lot of FOMO (fear of missing out). If I pursue one track, I might close myself off to another and be bound by the consequences of my decisions forever. Trade-offs are scary. Can’t it be “both / and”? Can’t we always have it all?

Hardly anyone talks about risk-taking in terms of staying-put, of being fully present and committed to limits: a place, a community, or line of work. Staying-put might be the greatest, most courageous risk of all, if one wanted to use risk as one’s criterion for decision-making. Of course, the question is: what are the right criteria?

For Christians, we don’t have to worry about adopting the bird’s eye-view from which we can weigh all the options and their possible implications; that perspective is God’s. He will make the necessary calculations, weaving all the little threads of our lives into the grand tapestry. We just need to heed his call. The right criterion is simply whether or not he has called us to it.

But the task of listening sensitively to God’s call can still be fairly stressful, especially if he is not saying much. Life would be much easier if Jesus just showed up and told us what to do with our lives, as he did to Simon, James and John, asking them to follow him and become “fishers of men.”

We forget that before that grand call, Jesus had issued another, simpler call to Simon: “put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” It is a bit of a ludicrous command, as Simon’s protest makes clear: “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything.” But he obeys and somehow catches enough fish to fill two boats. It is a miracle that attests to Jesus’ divinity and brings Simon to his knees, exclaiming, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!”

It was a bad night of fishing for Simon. He could have been wringing his hands on whether he should remain in the fishing industry and anxiously wondering what he might be missing out on in other professions. But through his faithful obedience to what was directly before him, he was led to the Caller, and from that, to his new calling. Perhaps the answer to the question, “What has God called me to?” might surface if we tacked on “right here and now” at the end of the question, and then obeyed.

vocation

work

Previous Post

March 11, 2013

Minimalism is Good, but Grace Isn't Cheap

Next Post

March 12, 2013 Art and Friendship

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category ambition art beauty bible bios body Book Review cheap grace church community consumer church cultural liturgy culture deep practice desire dualisms economics education evangelicalism events faith family fare forward Film Review friendship games Gospel happiness hipster Christianity humility identity institutions irony issue previews Jesus just church justice Lent Letters to the Editor liberal arts liberal christianity literature liturgy love march madness mental health metaphysics misotheism moralism morality Movie Review music narrative naturalism new atheism passions philosophy place political theology Pope Francis power prayer privilege providence reading reason relationship remembering self resurrection science secular faiths secularism sexuality sin Social Media spirituality Sport suburbs suffering table of contents technology the future of faith the new apologetic the virtues theology thick doctrine transcendence Trinity truth tv Uncategorized violence Virtue vocation war work

Select a Month August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which prophet was told not to marry or have children as a sign?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Ezra Micah Jeremiah Isaiah