Green Gables and Keyboard Warriors: A Call for Refocus

 

The beloved Anne of Green Gables series follows the wholesome trope of a young person finding identity in a small and beautiful town, where they fling themselves headlong into loving everyone around them and in the process, perhaps challenge the thinking of all involved. Many a person has settled into their chair with the book or the old movies to be carried off into a wholesome world of neighbors, hospitality, landscape, flowers, passionate love, friendship, and forgiveness. While trouble comes the characters' way, they bustle through it and carry on, their love for place and neighbor ever strengthened. 

L. M. Montgomery based this world off of her own experiences. And yet she, in her life, did not follow her own message. The depressed wife of an even more depressed minister, Lucy Montgomery let her mind and heart drown in the doom and horror of World War I. No one could deny the awfulness of such a terrible war, but the war happened, much like World War II and later, Vietnam, during a communication revolution. Rapid reports were available faster than ever before, and Lucy agonized over every jot and tittle of data she could find on what was going on oversees. Meanwhile, around her, her home and parish wilted as she focused her eyes beyond her personal reality and allowed herself to be consumed by every debate, war effort, newspaper clipping, and political argument regarding the global conflict. 

No one would deny Lucy's patriotism nor the importance of being aware of current events, especially during a war. But when I read her story, I saw myself and perhaps millions of other Americans. Deep in the throes of the digital revolution, we have displaced ourselves spiritually and mentally outside of the physical places God has ordained us to be present. Lucy had forgotten Prince Edward Island and her congregation, perhaps even her family, instead filling her mind with the warfront where she would never be present, and sank deeply into misery. 

My own city is falling into this mindset. Mr. Roger's Neighborhood burned for six days in violence in the streets as one side finally broke from feeling unheard by the other in Mr. Zuckerberg's Neighborhood. 

A friend of mine once commented that we forget God's intentionality in placing us where we are in time and space. It is my current calling to be in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania. I was supposed be exactly where I am, and no one, not Queen Esther, Ma Ingalls, Hildegaard von Bignen, or Margaret Thatcher could better carry out God's will for my life and place than me. And the same goes for everyone. But often we are so caught up in the world at large that we forget the grassroots nature of the world at large. I can say for sure that anyone watching the news in the past 48 hours has heard of Beaver and Lawrence Counties, whose lines run within walking distance of my house, but so many of those same people reading the names of my neighborhood on their headlines do not know the people they share a lawn or even walls with. 

I walked outside yesterday and my older neighbor greeted me from across the street. We awkwardly stood there, unsure of what to say after "How are you?" He mentioned that my baby was cute. I said thank you, I like your garden. More silence. We lived across from each other for almost a year now and did not know each other's names. In that exact moment I was struck with conviction. 

For weeks now most of us have been glued to our screens to socialize and argue with people across the world. Yes, we are called to spread light, but is that how? Through comment sections? It cannot be. The probability of convincing another person and reaching them through the internet alone, while not impossible, is incredibly slim. Many of us know this and preach this but do not live the opposite, which is connection with the immediate, action within our own neighborhood, and finding place and purpose in where we are physically. We will not likely fill our local pews by posting opinions but by face to face conversation that seeks to know the lost souls nearby and exactly how we can pray for their salvation based on their situation. In a world that enjoys directing anger on faceless concepts of one another, become a face for the faith for your neighbors. The Devil would love for us to ignore the spiritual battlefield we've been placed in, distracted by the plans belong to other soldiers. 

Practical suggestions on how to do this without sacrificing privacy and safety:

1. Revive the art of porch sitting and block barbecues (post-Covid, of course) 

2. Revive neighborly interdependence. Every street likely has someone who can help change the oil or fix the toilet stopper or grab some groceries for an elderly neighbor or shovel a walkway

3. Become a regular at your local businesses

4. Be unashamed of the Gospel in your everyday conversation 

5. More research and energy put into local politics than national 

6. Regular prayer for our neighborhoods

There is no one size fits all solution or formula or program to solve these problems (yes, the Gospel, obviously, but the application of such is not one size fits all culturally). No, this is not a suggestion for rice cake missions. The preaching of the Gospel and the means of grace are the primary means of outreach and salvation, but God calls the laity to be the hands and feet of Jesus. And Jesus' hands and feet in the church could take a break from the keyboards and headlines and instead take a walk down their own street.