Staff Talks with Francis: The Real Fear of Missing Out

I think there's one primarily thought I want to share here. Afterwards, maybe I can talk with content team or whoever wants to about just some stuff on that. I don't know if Brent will be able to join us for that, but more recorded somehow. Um, but you know, I just got back from Brazil.

Um, it was a lot of travel. Uh, calculated it was 54 hours. um of just flying and layovers and drives and gosh, I really wasn't gone that long and to be uh you know, but I I just thought, "No, I'm going to look forward to it. I'm going to see it as a sanctuary.

I can just have some quiet." Um and just in the first two hours, it was already awesome. It it was uh you know, the Lord was just revealing things and showing me things and um feeling like I I struggled with I guess a form of FOMO. Um where I just want to know about everything. >> Uh so you don't sound stupid.

Oh, there's a war in Ukraine. you know, like I I just that there's so many wars to keep up with and what's going on with all of them and homeland security and you just feel like I don't know enough about, you know, what's happening in every city and um and then on top of that there's theological issues where it's like, oh, you don't know that we don't believe in hell anymore or whatever it is.

It's like there's so there's constant new things you feel like you got to keep up with and then there's there's new cults and denominations every week and and you know Mercy and I have been studying you know Catholicism as as uh you know I'm interacting like like today I'll be interacting with uh you know a priest later in Phoenix and then group of nuns the next day.

And um I there's just so much to know. And then when I was in Brazil, I'm like, gosh, I don't even know what's going on with the government. I know it's bad. I don't you know, and they're like, can you pray for the government? And I'm like, I'm sure, but you know, I don't even get it.

And so there's just you just and then there's all these uh attacks on different I shouldn't even say attacks, uh exposing and attacks on different ministers. And it's like, "Oh, shoot. I really should know what's being said about everyone." Um, and so you you just try to keep up with all of that.

And then I I don't know. Your mind gets in this like I keep I don't have time to acquire all this information. And that's why I even dropped out of the stock market cuz it's like I can't help but throughout the day try to find oh what's happening with this stock and this stock and this stock and you know and then how the Lakers doing how you just you just get in a mode of like I want to know everything. where's the weather when I'm going and when I come back and h and then on top of that there is screen time and then being on the airplane it's like I'm just going to veg and watch a movie you know I deserve at least 2 hours out of 54 you know um and and there was just a real time of uh the Lord revealing to me that you can't know it all, experience it all.

And honestly, he gave me a greater FOMO where he says, "If you're going to do all that, what if I had something to say to you, but you were watching a video, you were studying, you were doing this, this, this, you ask me for things, but then I really got a serious fear of missing out.

What if I come to the end of my life? And he said, I had so much more for you. >> And I thought that is a very real possibility that I get pressured in to knowing all these things and shamed into what? You didn't know that about this person or that person? you haven't watched this video, that video that wow, what if in silence God just wanted to tell me how much he loved me that day, but I I I was I was scrolling or I don't even know how to scroll, but you know, like I was doing this or that and jumping from one thing to next.

And now it's like I seriously was just on the plane going, "God, I don't want to miss it. I really don't want to miss it." We didn't we didn't have this problem 50 years ago, 40 years ago, probably even 30 years ago, and or not as badly. It It's just wow, what what happened?

And and there's a discipline you can have to uh set your life up. You can't just go, well, that's just the way we are. Cuz I I am a little OCD and if someone leaves me a message, I got to get back to them right away. Or, you know, emails or whatever.

They're waiting for me. I don't want I don't like people waiting on me. Um I don't like being late. Uh it's where Lee and I are very different. Um, it it's just I I want to get there on time or before or I don't want anyone sitting in the car waiting for me.

I I just I don't want people on text waiting for me. And and yet there's just uh you you can't these aren't bad things. It's not bad to want to know all these theological issues. It's not bad to want to know the needs of the world. It's and and what's going on in the world.

It's not bad to want to respond to everyone in a timely fashion, but you really can't do it all or you will miss out on the most important things and you miss out on what you were created for and the fellowship. And he started showing like uh you could miss out on family even and key time that you have that's like precious that you don't know how much longer you have with some of these kids or you know at my age it's just how much time you have period but it's more like okay how much longer Is Ellie going to be in the home and she could meet someone the next time we go to an event?

Um, or Zeke or whatever, you know? It's like and then Silas and Claire, it's like, "Oh gosh, I got to just control the screens and the demands and the pressure and the shaming of you don't know this, you don't know that, and I don't want to miss that."

And then it's opportunities of people right in front of you because you're answering everyone that's in your pocket, you know. And how many times do we miss those conversations, those opportunities? And I mean, how many times have you been in a room where you go, you later find out, oh my gosh, I had no idea that person was going through that. um friends of mine that have committed suicide and I was like, "Wow, I was right there.

I just saw them the day before or but I wasn't alert to it." And I just, you know, yeah, I just started jotting some of these thoughts about the the real FOMO, you know, that I have in my life that I want to keep. Oh, God, I I know you made me for a purpose and I don't want to miss that.

And uh and so some of that just means discipline, self-control to say, "Okay, maybe I only check my text three times a day and set an alarm for it and then I just don't look at my phone. Maybe email becomes a once a day thing at this hour."

And yeah, sorry. They'll have to wait. Um, and maybe they won't text as much if they know they're not getting, you know, I mean, sometimes that's just true. It's like you get to, you know, hey, oh, never mind. I figured it out. Oh, good. See, I saved myself.

You know, those those types of things where it's like, I don't know. Who says I have to know all these things? Um, and then I'm setting a terrible example uh for my children, for other people, cuz I'm not alert. I'm not present. And so it's kind of being present with the Lord, being present with who's in the room.

Um, you know, and that means really disciplining and limiting the video intake and everything else. but got me real excited and just even thinking about okay what opportunities are there coming up and how do I make the most of my time um with my family and everything else and um I was reading about St.

Francis of a sizzy a sizzy. Um, and uh I know we say a cece but then I heard someone pronounce it right on the one of the videos I was watching. But uh it was it was just it's pretty cool because someone had told did I already share this about God telling me or someone telling me you should consider going on his path and and so I was reading an article about him and Claire um you know and and I thought wow that's really cool and so then I sent it to Claire and um I thought maybe I should just take the time and walk on a pilgrimage with Claire. you know, and Ellie's been, you know, trying to start this business and I she's not doing great and maybe I need to jump in and be her business partner and kill it, you know, and just like let's just go for it and am I going to regret these things?

And um and uh then I when I was in Brazil, I got to catch up with David Platt. It was just awesome because we just happened to be at the same stadium and a lot of the other guys weren't there and so just catching up and his life and he was sharing something out of Genesis that he just discovered this week that was pretty cool. and it was right where our reading is. >> And he was talking about how he noticed in Genesis 28 when you have that dream of Jacob um and he just sets a stone in that like this is Bethl.

This is the house of God. This is a special place and and so I'm going to go up to Haran, but I'm going to come back here, you know, uh this is the spot. And so he goes gets his girls, family, whatever. comes back, but he doesn't come back to Bethl.

He stops short >> in Sheckchum and everything really falls apart there. >> You know, his daughter gets raped and then his sons kill all the men in the city and then they're a stench to everyone and then leave and like, okay, you know, hey, let's let's go to Bethl.

And then they come to Bethl and it's like ah but he's just making he's just saying in my life I don't want to stop short >> of what I know God's called me to. I don't want to like make this journey and just he goes that that doesn't you know obviously there's grace or everything else and don't take this to an extreme but it's like could it be that sometimes in our lives we don't trust God and just go that little bit more to what we really know he called us to and and we're just talking about our lives and he he did you know when I was talking about church and everything else I he was so encouraging and and he's like taking notes the whole time and um but he says, you know, this is I I shared with him it's pretty amazing that I just now figured out that I was at Cornerstone for 16 years and then 16 years in house church and he's like wow you really need to pay attention to that.

That is like he goes I don't think a single year a single month of that was wasted that this was the Lord's timing all to now that there is something that you're called to steward in all of that and I just put that all together and thinking yeah I don't want to back off on what God's showing me with hearing his voice and okay God have me go to the extreme you want me to go you know like a St.

Francis. It's like, okay. And like Claire, who's just like, you know, the old old Claire, the dead Claire, you know, just like, yeah, I'm going to forsake all of this, all of this, you know? Um, like I don't want to I don't want to be afraid or look at things that didn't go the way I thought they would go and now suddenly back off as though God is not able to do these miraculous things.

And I do believe God is convicting me to do some some outrageous things that I go this is over. And just to remind you like when I was in Hong Kong the first time and I thought I was going to settle in there. Trying to make sure I don't exaggerate.

I I would say the two times I most clearly heard the voice of the Lord was once in Hong Kong during that trip and then once at YWAM. Those would be the top two. And you know other times there are just convictions I think and I do believe he spoke.

But if if I were to write down what are the top two things top two times number one or two they're interchangeable. um Hong Kong when I thought I was going to move there back in 2010 and I really believe that God said, "No, you have to go back to the US cuz I hated that thought.

I dreaded that thought. I loved it in Hong Kong. We bet, you know, and really believing God says there's a different paradigm for church that you're supposed to I don't know, exemplify or whatever. Like I I you know, the thing is is sometimes it it's it's usually not for me.

I can't say that I heard an audible voice, but that doesn't matter. Like we're talking about God who who doesn't have to go through my eard drums to get a thought in my mind or in my soul. He's the creator. He can do communicate to me without my eyes and ears or even my mind imagining according to first Corinthians.

He'll communicate. He'll reveal things through his spirit. And it's like I just knew I couldn't stay in Hong Kong. We have to go back. I didn't want to tell Lisa. I didn't want to tell the kids cuz it was just sad. Like, hey guys, I think we're going to go back to America.

It was a let down. It was It was just sad. Um, and I remember telling God, I go, I don't have the mind to lead like the world into or America into a new form of church, and I don't have that. to give it to someone else. I'm not that kind of leader.

Um, but also knowing that God always calls me to things that are over my head. And then the second time, as some of you know, that I really felt was when I was at WWAM the first time and walking to Ohana Accord and him saying, "These are your children.

Protect your children." And and it was like and I like then that time was more of a clear phrase like you know like what are did you just talk to me like cuz I didn't hear it but I I did and are you telling me that these are my children?

Why are these my children? Why this place? I speak every week like why what was going on here? And if you remember, I'm in prayer during worship. Like, did you just talk to me? I'm sorry if I doubted you, but I'm just still scared to say, "I heard your voice.

Did you tell me these are your children?" And then that's when Brian Brent, who I didn't know at the time, just some old guy, whispers in my ear, "These are your children." I'm like, "Shut up. There's no way. And so the thought of this season now where Andy Bird is starting this new thing and and he's going to Charlotte, which I no >> Yeah.

Yeah. That's just Yeah, that's the same thing. It's just like wow. Um don't feel any pull that way. But the concept of him saying he needs to marry whatever he's doing with the local church and church planting and and just going, "No, there's got to be a tie to the ancient church."

And and then with David Platt this last week, we're just talking about there's no way we can pass on this form of church that we're currently doing to the new generation because they're not going to make it. I had way more years of just you slowly, you know, you're you're just the janitor at first and then you're the intern and then you're this this this this this and and Keller used to talk about that.

He goes, "What helped him was for whatever 30 years no one knew his name." And so you've got all these years of just being a servant to the Lord in your local congregation. Now suddenly you're Tim Keller. You've always been Tim Keller, but now you're a Tim Keller and but you've got the integrity to deal with all of the attacks that come with being Tim Keller and all of the flattery and weight.

Um, and I mean he was heavy, but I meant more like the like the I don't know what you call it, the mantle or Yeah. Um, but you had years to prepare. And so now these young people that are going into ministry, they're overnight they can get a bunch of followers, like thousands, hundreds of thousand followers over.

I mean, they're not real followers, but they think they are. And it's like, whoa. and then to deal with the amount of flattery and aggression uh antagonism towards you. There's no way they're going to make it. They haven't had the years to build and so we're going to keep pushing this.

It's there's no way. There's no way. uh things have to change and and I just think if I can be quiet enough and present enough and not listening to all the voices and the accuser through fellow believers of just accusation, accusation, accusation. If you can hear the voice of God and be present with the people before you and just go, "Yeah, my God can do anything."

And there are some Red Sea type moments that I find myself in like I don't see how this even possible. And yet those stories are there to remind us, no, that's where you want to be. And and I think that was the thing with leaving Hong Kong and um and the thing with now going the opportunities that are out there and it'd be very easy for me to just back away in the flesh and go it's too much.

Um but I feel like the Lord's downloading like no here's how you do it. Here's some of this. Here's some of that. Still like, are you kidding me? But I'm excited. I'm excited to pursue it. And I feel more I feel very alive. And some of it is just disciplining um my thoughts and what I'm taking in.

And yeah, I I I feel like I know my lane better of like I don't have to be that. And maybe I need to be the example of the guy that's like, "Yeah, I don't know that cuz I don't I don't actually believe I have to know that."

Um because the things I need to know take a long time to truly know in my soul. And I think that's the problem in the church is everyone now is feeling a pressure to know so many things intellectually that they really don't know his love deeply and his his calling and their place and their lane.

And God's made it clear through my whole life. Kind of like what David was saying, you you have a lot of years to steward and a lot of things that he's shown you. Um and that's what I tell the older generation. And it's like gosh, we know what life was like before all these gadgets.

Um, so that's a stewardship. You laughing as I said gadgets. >> Yeah, I know. What do you call them? What do you children call them? Low key. >> Well, the one >> these devices. Devices. Okay. All right. >> Last night. What's that? >> Sounds a little less lame that way. >> Yeah, sounds less lame.

Do you even say lame anymore? >> I do. >> You do? Okay. >> Bring me the back. >> I don't want to get cooked.