Welcome to another Thursday UNFILTERED blog post, the only blog that doesn’t always whoop. But when it does, there it is.
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Stop Trading Your Inner Life for Endless Feeds from the Outrage Machine
An uncomfortable truth to scores of Christians: You’re likely burning a lot of time watching the current wars taking place between the megastars on YouTube and Rumble in the political commentary arena.
You’re likely spending more time consuming that than you’re actually learning Christ and discovering how to be transformed, exploring His riches in your experience and living out the glorious gospel of the kingdom.
What is more, with everything going on in the world, the kinds of things Christian people are breathlessly posting on social media is unfathomable. Partisan influencers waging public wars and offering teasers like it’s a Netflix finale, all tied to merch and monetized outrage.
What would happen to your soul and spirit if you spent the same amount of time consuming videos that are specifically designed to deepen your understanding and experience of eternal realities?
Yeah, I get it. Watching the mega-pop YouTube and Rumble commentators hyperventilate as they attack one another is entertaining. But time is a limited commodity. And DISTRACTION is your cardinal enemy.
Is it really worth allowing life-changing books on spiritual transformation collecting digital dust on your Kindle while you’re down another rabbit hole watching one pundit wax eloquent about masculinity and another rant about whatever they’re ranting about this week?
In five years, you won’t remember what any of these political commentators said. So will it matter that you knew every detail about some online beef between political pundits–pundits that you’ve never met and have zero relationship with?
No. It’ll be gone. Vaporized. Irrelevant.
But you know what won’t be irrelevant? Your understanding of the clash between kingdoms. How the Industrial Religious Complex influences your daily life. And what the Insurgence is all about.
Many of these YouTube and Rumble personalities draw in a huge number of young men in their 20s and 30s. And I’m happy to report that this ministry is drawing many of those same souls away from them. That includes females in that age range also.
They are being magnetized by Christ — His authenticity, His reality, His power, His passion, His beauty, His compassion, and His glory.
When they get exposed to ministry that unveils HIM in His staggering and stunning splendor and grandeur, there’s nothing like it.
And nothing can compare.
The harsh reality is that these online culture wars are designed to keep you hooked, not to make you holy.
The algorithm doesn’t care about your sanctification. It cares about your attention, your outrage, and your endless scrolling.
And you’re giving it away for free while the deeper things of God sit there, waiting.
The Internet is full of clickbait titles that suck people into never-ending cycles of outrage. And that’s horrible for any human, especially Jesus-followers.
Here’s what’s actually happening: You’re outsourcing your spiritual formation to people who are essentially entertainers.
They’re good at what they do—getting views, stirring emotions, making you feel like you’re part of something important. But they’re not making you more like Jesus. They’re making you more anxious, more angry, more distracted.
Tozer warned about this exact thing decades ago—how we’d trade the presence of God for lesser things. How we’d be satisfied with noise instead of depth.
And yet here we are, proving him right every time we choose another podcast soap-opera drama over another chapter of The Untold Story or episode of Christ is All or any other resource on the deeper life in Christ that can actually change your life.
The uncomfortable question you need to ask yourself is: What are you actually building? A collection of hot takes and borrowed political opinions? The next dopamine hit from a viral tweet or a spicy debate clip?
Or a life that knows Christ and looks like Him?
The culture war will rage on without you. The online personalities will find new controversies. The algorithm will keep churning. The social media megastars will continue to rake in cash.
But your soul? Your eternal spirit? It’s waiting for you to choose something better.
So maybe it’s time to unsubscribe from that rage-fueled YouTube or Rumble channel. Close the app. And stop using X (Twitter) – I did awhile ago. And take your place on the deeper journey, which is eternal.
The noise will still be there tomorrow.
But so will God—and He’s got something infinitely better to offer than another reason to be angry online.
I have more to say about this subject, so stay tuned for next Thursday’s article entitled “The Media Industrial Complex.”
In this with you,
fv
Related: The Noise of Strangers
Waiting on God Reimagined