Chris Bailey III - Fakebook, Instagrab, & Tick-Toxic

Thou wilt keep [him] in perfect peace, [whose] mind [is] stayed [on Thee]: because he trusteth in Thee. - Isaiah 26:3 KJV

Don't predetermine the post point of view by the title. Catch up with the thought by reading the verse first. What does it really mean to keep our minds on God? Is it a grit, clenched jaw, kind of push to stay on point? Or is it the natural, flow and extension of trust? We were made to trust; therefore, whatever we trust, that person or thing becomes the source of focus and reflection. It's what we find ourselves wondering to in moments of freedom or when we have no obligations. It becomes the default hobby which becomes the determined habit which becomes the defined character.

Now, bring in the apps. These are the tools, that more often turn into toys, that turn us into tools. This is not a debate on the good or bad of what we call "social" media. To be real, how can something be social that literally thrives on algorithms designed to stoke negative emotions and divisive outcomes for the sake of traffic? That said, where do these applications fit in the framework of perfect peace as outlined in Isaiah 26? The same question can be posed to any media as a conduit to the brain. But as I sit here waiting for my car's oil to be changed, I am 10 feet from one guy and about 50 from another doing the same thing - staring at their cell phone, the most dominant medium of information in history. A matter of fact, I've been waiting for my car so long maybe that's what the mechanic is doing! Either way, mobile media is how the majority of the world learns, communicates, and ultimately, meditates. Yes, what we call scrolling with our thumbs actually reads in the body and mind as a type of meditation.

On one level, it's what something is that defines it, but on another it's what you do with it. I plan on cooking tonight with a knife. Another person is planning on mugging somebody with a knife smaller than mine. When perfect peace is the goal, than it will shape the means. The purpose is actually the lord of the process. If perfect peace is the extension of total trust, that trust will mold the mind around what, or whom, it meditates. It's this incessant meditation that media, of any kind, good or bad, taps into. If anyone can get into our wheelhouse, we can take them along for a ride that goes way longer than they have paid for because of that independent, God-given desire to trust something or someone. Perhaps, that's why the verse uses the word "stayed", while the clause "on thee" was actually added by the translators. "Stayed" from the Hebrew verb meaning "to lean, lay, rest, support, put, uphold, lean upon." What we lean our minds on becomes what we trust. And we can know what, or who, we trust, by what we lay our minds on.

The endless scroll, as seen in the pic above, is fed by our endless search or endless need to trust. Technology just allowed us to create a hardware and software that can almost keep pace with that need. God invites Himself into our search. Remember, He is the One Who created the need. He is so confident in His capacity to satisfy our trust that He designed us to actually choose who to trust. God knows nothing and nobody can actually compare to Him, so the only grounds for competition would be to do so by deception.

But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. - 1 Thessalonians 5:8 KJV

Alone, we are defenseless to mechanisms designed to bypass discernment. But awake, or sober, as 1 Thessalonians 5:8 says, we will have a peace that endureth forever because the Source of trust endureth forever.

Isaiah 26:4 KJV — Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:

Psalm 52:8 KJV — But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.
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