It Is OK To Be Irrelevant

I’m terrible with celebrity names. I don’t watch enough TV to know who stars in what. Most of my celebrity knowledge comes from 1990s movies and even then, my wife often corrects me. I read lots of news (too much news) and yet, somehow, I often miss out on the big culture stories of the day. I’m not sure how I miss it, but I do. I’ve had to come to grips with the reality that I’m just not cool.

I’m nearly 40. Being cool doesn’t have the same allure it once did. Besides, I remind myself that I can bench press more than those supposedly “cool” people and that gives me a bit of satisfaction.

But, I also realize that being relevant in the moment does not equal a long-term impact. Our culture moves so rapidly that any attempt at relevance is almost necessarily a commitment to shallow investment. If I am to be relevant every day, I will have to regularly shift my focus to match what Twitter, Instagram, CNN, or FOX NEWS tells me is important today, or tomorrow, or in the next ten minutes.

In a book published in 1985, Neil Postman warned against the over use of “Now . . . this” in radio and television newscasts. According to Postman,

Now . . . this is commonly used to indicate that what one has just heard or seen has no relevance to what one is about to hear or see, or possibly to anything one is ever likely to hear or see. The phrase is a means of acknowledging the fact that the word as mapped by the speeded-up electronic media has no order or meaning and is not to be taken seriously . . . The newscaster means that you have thought long enough on the previous matter, that you must not be morbidly preoccupied with it, and that you must now give your attention to another fragment of news or a commercial.

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death

If Postman’s warning had merit in 1985, it is certainly prescient today. The constant barrage of cultural crises threatens to rob our society of real meaning and order. We scarcely have time to process one emergency before we are urged to be angered by another infraction or injustice.

Amidst the clamor of constant outrage we are tempted to believe that the only way to remain relevant is by having an opinion on everything that offends or upsets someone somewhere. But, relevance must never be our goal.

It is OK to be irrelevant. You aren’t an expert on everything (and neither am I). Your opinion is usually not necessary and often doesn’t matter at all.

It is OK if you aren’t aware of the latest scandal or the most recent issue causing cultural indignation. Christians should stand for Christ and his gospel and should stand against injustice wherever it is found. But, standing for Christ and standing against injustice does not require you to scour the internet daily for reasons to be angry and outspoken.

You may do better living a life of relative irrelevance; investing in the people around you, digging deeper into God’s word, and ignoring some of the cultural clamor. It is possible that no one will remember any of your tweets. You may even miss the opportunity to go viral. But, you may just make an eternal difference without telling anyone you did it.

Reject relevance. Embrace focus. Make a difference today.

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:8

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Thanks to Stefan Cosma for sharing their work on Unsplash.