Following Jesus Is Learning to Love Better Things
The Chiefs won on Sunday, which puts them at 4-0. Great game. Sorry to my Raiders friends.
As much as I love a Chiefs win, my favorite part is checking in on the opposing fanbase on social media after the final whistle. Every fanbase does the same thing, going on and on about the officials helping the Chiefs. This week was no different, except I did find some Chiefs fans firing back. My favorite recap put five pictures in one frame: a missed pass interference call, a ball that clearly hit the ground, an illegal tackle, and two Chris Jones holds. It led to a pretty good meme, too.
And I was fired up. The refs don’t help the Chiefs, they hurt us! In reality, I imagine it all evens out over time. But my perspective is skewed by what I read, what I believe, and what I want to see. So is yours.
That matters more than it sounds like it does. With almost half of adults saying they’re online “almost constantly,” we need to be honest with ourselves about what all that consuming is doing to us.
Attention Directs Affection
This is part 2 of a series called “You Are What You Scroll.” In the first post, we acknowledged that our screens have our attention, and because of that, your screen is shaping your life.
It doesn’t have to stay that way. Hebrews 12:2 gives us a way to move our focus:
“We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.” (Hebrews 12:2a, NLT)
For most of us, the sheer volume of content we take in puts us at risk, because attention directs affection. Put another way, what you consume becomes what you crave. Philosopher James K.A. Smith says it like this:
“It is crucial for us to recognize that our ultimate loves, longings, desires, and cravings are learned.”
Here’s the idea I hope changes how you approach your digital life, and your life in the real world: following Jesus is learning to love better things.
What John Saw Coming
The letter of 1 John was written by John, the one called the beloved disciple, near the end of his life, around 90 AD. By then he was a seasoned pastor who had led the church at Ephesus for a long time. Christianity was growing, but so was confusion about what it actually meant to follow Jesus. False teachers claimed to know God while rejecting key truths about Jesus and living in ways that didn’t reflect his teaching.
That makes John’s words surprisingly timely. How do you live faithfully in a world that so often rejects what Jesus taught? Here’s where John starts:
“Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you.” (1 John 2:15, NLT)
John is drawing a clear line between what is of God and what is of the world. He was Jesus’ closest friend, and he was watching a perversion of Jesus’ teaching spread around him. He wasn’t going to stand for it. He understood the stark contrast between how we’re naturally inclined to live and how Jesus actually lived.
If your allegiance is to the things of the world, or you’re soaking in the principles of someone other than Jesus, John says that’s a reason to pause and take stock.
Following Jesus isn’t a cheat code. It doesn’t make everything instantly okay. But it puts us in proximity to the most loving person who ever walked the earth, and when his love begins to shape how we live, life gets better.
That’s hard, because the algorithm is constantly pointing us somewhere. John describes exactly what shows up every time you turn on your device:
“For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions.” (1 John 2:16a, NLT)
Your feed isn’t an accident. Your algorithm feeds your appetite, and in doing so, it creates cravings. Let’s look at all three.
Your feed increases your craving for physical pleasure
I crave comfort. I know I’m not alone, because nearly every inconvenience humans used to face has been erased.
Hungry? DoorDash it. Bored? Open TikTok. Stumped? Jump on YouTube. Lonely? Talk to AI.
Our desires haven’t changed. People are people. What’s changed is that technology has made satisfying our appetites endlessly easy. But you know the best things come when we’re willing to wait. Which satisfies more, microwave ramen or a brisket that’s spent 20 hours in smoke?
Coffee works the same way. When I want a quick cup, I use the Keurig. When I want a good cup, I buy fresh beans, weigh them, grind them, and pour a precise amount of perfectly heated water over them, then wait while it cascades through the grounds. It takes longer, and it tastes better. Faster doesn’t always mean better. Often it means worse.
One of the shadow sides of technology is that it keeps teaching us that whatever we want should be available right now. Think about what that’s done to consumer spending, when nearly anything can be on your porch by bedtime. Anyone else a little shocked when the Amazon truck drives past your house without stopping?
More seriously, our ability to have desires fulfilled in real time has contributed to an incredible rise in pornography use and a perversion of God’s design for intimacy. Pornography used to require you to go looking for it. Now, for many people, it finds them. Common Sense Media found that nearly three out of four teenagers have seen online pornography, and more than half of those had seen it by age 13. A 2024 Barna study found that 61% of US adults view pornography regularly, and it often grows into addiction.
The results are devastating. When a culture becomes hypersexualized, it becomes desensitized to humanity. If we wonder why women are viewed as objects, or why sexual violence is so prolific, we don’t need to look much further. When we spend enough time seeing people as bodies to consume instead of people to know and love, it eventually changes how we see people in real life too.
What you look at matters, because what you see becomes what you love.
If you struggle with what you see on your screen, know this: the love of God isn’t far off. Jesus wants to walk with you and bring healing and wholeness. Following Jesus is learning to love better things.
Your feed increases your craving for everything you see
If you’ve spent any time online, you know the word “influencer.” The word has been around since the mid-1600s, but it only became a job title about 15 years ago, and now anyone can be one.
Instagram: Cristiano Ronaldo, 679 million followers
TikTok: Khaby Lame, 163 million followers
YouTube: MrBeast, 640 million subscribers across channels
X (Twitter): Elon Musk, 242 million followers
There is an entire industry built on the idea that people you don’t know can shape what you want, what you buy, and how you see yourself. We wonder why people we’ll never meet, and know so little about, have such an impact on how we see things. John knows. Your feed increases your craving for everything you see.
Your feed increases pride in achievements and possessions
Every time someone else posts, it quietly moves our target. We feel like we need to keep up and look as good. This isn’t new. “Keeping up with the Joneses” came from a 1913 comic strip, and it’s still our reality. The Joneses are anyone whose house, car, clothes, or vacations become the measuring stick for our own lives. They used to live on your street. Now they live everywhere, because we carry them around in our pockets.
So often we’re measuring success the wrong way. We compare our real lives to everyone else’s highlight reel, and it can lead us somewhere dark. That’s why John reminds us:
“These are not from the Father, but are from this world.” (1 John 2:16b, NLT)
What’s missing from all of it? Meaning, purpose, fullness of life. It’s all fleeting. None of it lasts. But something does:
“And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.” (1 John 2:17, NLT)
What to Do on Monday
What you see on your screen gains your attention, and attention directs affection. So it all boils down to a few honest questions. Does Jesus have your affection? Do you treasure him? Are you drawn to him? Is he constantly on your mind?
If your world revolves around podcast episodes, followers, and reels, that’s where your affections are. The good news is that affections can be redirected. The decisions we make can reshape our lives.
So what could you change on Monday?
Set specific time limits on the apps that suck you in
Leave your phone in the car when you meet a friend for coffee
Commit to device-free family dinners, game nights, and the like
And if you’re like me, you might wonder what you’ll do with all the time you get back. Here’s a bigger step: sign up to join a serve team. Redeem that time and invest it in something better.
Because following Jesus is learning to love better things. Jesus offers something your feed never can: a life rooted in love, peace, purpose, and the kind of joy that doesn’t disappear when you put the phone down.
So this week, pay attention to your attention. And when you notice your heart being pulled somewhere else, look away from everything else and look to Jesus.
