Craving Interesting

 

A few months ago, I found an Instagram account of a woman named Shayla (@shayibanez), who was a full time RVer. I love full-time RV accounts, so I followed her right away. And one of the next posts I saw from her was the announcement that she was leaving full-time RV life.

                I confess that my first thought was a twinge of sadness. I mean, I had just found her account, so I can’t say I was broken-hearted about it. But the whole reason I followed her was to learn from her adventures in RV life. It’s hard to do that when she’s no longer living in an RV.

                She hasn’t posted too often since that announcement, but her post this week caught my eye. She said, in part, “I feel like I’m failing my followers by changing my lifestyle and the things I post. Some days I want to be a full-time content creator and sometimes I want to give up social media completely….I’m having a hard time figuring out what content I should create now that I don’t live in an RV. How am I entertaining enough to have 8K+ followers, let alone gain more?”

                I confess my first thought was a twinge of guilt, because I was one of the followers who felt sadness at her change of lifestyle. And my second thought was a heaping helping of conviction, because the truth is, any form of social media is an offering from the person sharing it. The lives lived by those people are real. And all of us have lives that are always changing in details.

                Next year marks twenty years of blogging for me (WHAT?!) and in that time, my life has changed many times. I’ve lived it out loud in real time (as much as I’ve been able to do) in front of you, my readers.

                Some didn’t love it when I halted the recipes and fun stories to process loss of love.

                Some didn’t love it when I found love again and got married.

                Some didn’t love it when I left my cool job in radio.

                Some didn’t love it when we entered ministry, and I couldn’t share the details of every story anymore.

                Some didn’t love it when we moved a whole bunch of times in a short time.

                Some didn’t love it when I entered the job God has called me to most recently.

                So yes, I understand Shayla’s sentiments. I don’t have 8K+ followers, but there are days I worry I’m not entertaining enough for those of you reading here or that I’m failing you when life changes for us and therefore the stories here change as well.

                But for Shayla and for me – and for all of us – life isn’t meant to be lived for social media content. It’s meant to be lived, honestly, authentically, with all the changes that come with such honest, authentic living.

                It’s one reason I’m glad my blog has never been about a particular topic (other than life). If it had been all about food and recipes, I’d have closed up shop during the desert, because I didn’t eat anything but mac and cheese cups and lime tortilla chips for four months. And if it had been all about singleness, I’d have run out of material when I got married. And if it had been all about radio, leaving would have left me in quite the content pickle. You get the idea.

                We’re always growing. We’re always changing. We’re always following where the Lord leads. And the world around us is always changing, and sometimes those changes drive what I do and do not share in this space. It’s true for anyone sharing on any platform.

                So if we’re craving being interesting enough to capture the attention of readers and followers, we’re going to find ourselves in trouble at some point. We can’t always be interesting to everyone. But if we’re craving authenticity, we have a chance. And I hope you find that here in this little corner of the blogging world!