with whom we have concern

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To whom it may concern - I’m sure you have used this expression before or read it somewhere. Something is written, or said in order that anyone who might be interested or concerned about the topic you’re talking about can take notice of it. Hopefully, they will get connected, and even involved in the matter.

Now, this has become a problem of our days. I’m especially thinking of social media.

What is the most common thing about social media feeds? People – we - sharing happenings of their life. Not just one here and there, but a string of endless events.[1] The trip, the pool, the car, the house, the kids, the gym, the game… Happening after happening flooding timelines with content “to who it may concern”, because it reaches both friends we know well and people we barely know.

There’s nothing sinful per se in doing so. But here is where the problem lies: when people are scrolling and seeing event after event of their friends, without meaningful connection between them, many of them will slowly become less and less concerned. If they do, it’ll probably just for a couple seconds, until they scroll to the next post. And the next. And the next. And then your craved “like” or “red heart” won’t be coming. If they come, they might be an automatic “okay, let’s show some validation.”[2]

To whom it may concern. The more you randomly share events, the less people seeing it get concerned and involved about them. That happens also in “real life”. For example: If I told you: “today I washed some clothes, then I drove to the grocery store. After that I watched a movie and now I’m reading.” You’ll look at me and say: “And?.....”. Then if I did that every day, two weeks in a row, how concerned and interested in my events of life would you be after that?

Then, what may happen is the opposite of concern, involvement, strengthening of friendships. What may come instead is one the three: resentment, envy or backlash/vengeance. That’s why we see many people hitting their keyboards fury and/or cynicism these days. They feel the urge of, instead of giving validation, good feed back to other people, giving them the opposite.[3]

In times of extreme need for visibility and validation, and at the same time of indifference and aimless scrolling, we need to constantly go back to the story that strings the events of our life together. We need the story that is foundational to our own sense of meaning, visibility, belonging and validation. It is a story of concern. A God who saw an event happening – the fall into sin – e decided to get involved. He is concerned about the narrative story of His created beings – men and women –, and sends Jesus into the world, as we remember in Advent and Christmas. Because the event in the Garden of Eden concerned Him, he got involved to change that story.

Now, Jesus’ story is our story. Our life is not just a random sequence of events of people who evolved from somewhere and are going nowhere. In His manger and on His Cross we find identity, for his story is our story, given to us through Baptism, through faith. We find forgiveness, new life. Eternal life. In Him we find more than fleeting feelings. We have joy, contentment and peace.

You don’t need to stop using your device and your platforms if you wish. Just remember that the more you share events, the less value they have and the less concern they generate for the eyes on the other side of the screen. The most important thing is that as we have your story tied closely to Jesus’ through faith, we can be ready to share this joy and this love with whom we have concern.


        [1] Inspired in Root, Andrew. “The End of Youth Ministry?: Why Parents Don’t Really Care about Youth Groups and What Youth Workers Should Do about It.” Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, a division of Baker Publishing Group, 2020.

        [2] A sequence of happenings doesn’t have a story, a narrative that can connect them in a meaningful way building identity and generating validation.(Root, Andrew. The End of Youth Ministry?) So, over time, they don’t generate concern anymore.

        [3] Inspired in Root, Andrew. The End of Youth Ministry?

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