So I just cannot stop thinking about something, which means you get another blog post.
Have any of you seen those "Grocery Hauls" on Youtube? They have Target ones, too, and I am sure other stores, but I am most familiar with these grocery store ones.
Basically, for those who do not know, it's a video of people unloading their groceries and telling you what they bought.
Yeah, I know. But there are thousands of them.
Now, some of them are kind of niche markets, so those can be interesting. Like the Swedish vegan family of 12 who shops once a month. Ok, I'll give you that. That's interesting.
Or I suppose it's kind of interesting to see what a super model buys every week.
But those are the outliers.
Most of the thousands of grocery haul vlogs are not that interesting. They are just people who are unloading their groceries and telling you what they bought for the week.
At first when I came across these I was absolutely puzzled. WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD ANYONE WANT TO KNOW WHAT SOMEONE BUYS AT THE GROCERY STORE?
I kept mulling it over in my mind about why these videos could be popular ("popular" meaning some of them have over a million views). Is is that people were never taught how to grocery shop? Are they in an eating rut and need some other ideas of food to buy? Are they looking for meal planning tips?
I am sure there is some of that. But I don't think there is a-million-views-worth-some-of-that. So I kept being puzzled.
Fast forward a few months to a few weeks ago. I am chit chatting with a girlfriend who makes the comment "You know you have reached the mark of a close friendship when you text each other nothingness." We laughed, because really it's true! There are only a couple friends I can send messages like this to:
"Trying this konmari thing. How do I have so many shirts that spark no joy?!"'
"Needless to say, this summer I want all the good beverages in my fridge."
"I am currently covered in bodily fluids that are not my own."
"I just made the best gravy I have ever eaten."
And there is a good reason I do not text that to just everybody:
BECAUSE NOBODY CARES.
Or do they?
See, I am starting to think people care.
How can I not think that?
What is grocery shopping {besides buying the things that sustain you for life}?
It's nothingness.
And people all over the world are tuning in to watch someone put away their groceries. They are tuning in to watch the nothingness of someone's life.
So here is what I am thinking. Since almost all of us can agree that true "community" (which btw is a word I have grown to HATE) is virtually non-existent in our lives (churches, too), and I think most of us would agree that people need true "community" (which I think used to be called "friends" before social media hijacked that word) to live a healthy life, people are starving for someone they can share the nothingness of their life with.
So they get their fill of nothingness online.
I mean, let's be real. What is Instagram (except maybe for some a business tool)?
Nothingness.
What is Facebook full of?
Nothingness?
What is Snapchat?
Nothingness.
IT'S PEOPLE TELLING THE WORLD THEIR NOTHINGNESS AND THE WORLD WANTING TO SEE YOUR NOTHINGNESS TOO.
I think this is deeply imbedded in the human spirit since we were created by a relational God.
But here is the catch.
Nothingness over a screen doesn't count. {Can we all just admit and accept this fact?!}
At first it seems like the real deal....until you realize it isn't. For a while it suffices....until it doesn't.
It's like processed food. You think you are eating real food, but then you are done with the meal and still feel hungry and you realize that it wasn't real food at all.
Human beings are not created to get our "nothingness" tanks filled via a screen device.
We are meant to have real-life friends.
Hubbs and I talk all the time about how great it is to be with certain friends of ours who we call "low-maintenance" friends. They are the kind you can walk into their house and lay down on their couch.
But sadly, we only have a couple of those, and so we find ourselves pining for people to just spend our life with. We don't want a bunch of friends we put on our calendar for a dinner date in three weeks. That doesn't cut it for the human soul. We want people to eat with TONIGHT. We want people to go drop in on. We want people to text nothingness to.
And I know I am not alone. I just heard of a woman who lost her husband recently. "You know, I am social, so I have people to do stuff with," she said. "But I don't have someone to do nothing with."
How tragic, but how common.
I mean, isn't that what most of life is? If the hours of your life were broken up into percentages, wouldn't most of those hours be full of nothing in particular?
Yes. We have those moments of grandeur. But most of life is just everyday stuff.
And I think that's great. I think the best parts of life, the places we meet the Lord the most, are in the moments of nothingness; the day-to-day.
But we are not supposed to experience those moments alone. Or over something you have to plug in.
Therefore, my encouragement to you is this: Find people you can share nothingness with. Gather friends who you can lay on their couch.
And I realize this is basically the hardest thing you have been told to do all week, but I am absolutely convinced this is one of the greatest needs in our culture.
So next time some nothingness happens to you....or you go to the grocery store and got a great deal on hummus....call someone on the phone and tell them about it. Don't post it to Instagram. Don't Snapchat anyone about it. Use your voice and speak your nothingness into someone's life.
Because I can basically guarantee you that they want to hear it (they are watching grocery haul videos for crying out loud!). And chances are they want to tell you their nothingness too.
