More Than Mere Audience

The Audience. Culture and business thrive and depend upon it. In fact, human extistence seems to run on the fuel provided by the energy of the audience.  Consider today's technology. Nearly every component of social media are contingent upon having an audience. These audiences go by various names: followers, friends, pluses, links, etc. We all have them, we all - it seems - need them. Yes. We have become suspects in and victims of the idea that the world is an audience. An audience for whom we are the central player, in the central act of the central narrative called 'Our Amazing Life.' The stage is cluttered with pictures of last evening's meal and comments about one's latest revulsion and desire. All in the name of 'the audience.'

Of course, the need or longing for an audience exceeds both cultural and industrial dependence. A deep and abiding truth, shared by all of humanity in all ages, is the truth that we long to be 'connected' with others. We long for relationship. In a highly individualistic and consumerist society, it is mere logic that 'the audience' would seek to provide for this deeply human need. I have friends who work with young people in a variety of charitable organizations from churches to civic clubs. These friends speak with one voice when they exclaim that teens depend upon technology because it keeps them connected with others. This dependence feeds hunger and stirs craving for more, bigger and better audience. Thus, teens (and adults) sink ever deeply into their own audience even as the hunger for connection and craving grows.


As the craving grows the audience expands.  Our connections become more broad and less deep, all the while suppressing the core need of all humans: the need of relationship.  The desire  to build an audience who will watch us reveals a deeper craving.  The craving for someone to do more than merely watch, but walk with us.  More than mere friends, our hearts ache for those who would be-friend.  More than an Instagram we desire that which sustains, lasts more than a minute, does more than 'crop' life into a well ordered and edited photo.   We hunger for relationships that both nurture and create life-giving meaning, purpose and mission.   Such life-giving relationship is forged in the deeply woven fabric of human connected-ness, which grows through long seasons of wonderfully mundane journey together.

Christopher West, in his excellent work called Fill These Hearts, suggests that many interpersonal relational struggles (and perhaps larger cultural and political polarization) can be traced to a thinness we experience as the result of being an audience enamored world.  He suggests the alternative of exploring the unrepeatable value of those around us and growing more deeply in love with that which is unrepeatable (cannot be found in any other; no matter how big the audience may be) in them.  He applies this directly to the marriage covenant. Noting that marriages in which the husband and wife grow more deeply in love with the unrepeatable value of the other are those marriages which are most healthy.  Conversely, in those marriages in which trouble and deep wounds are evident, the husband and/or wife tend to flit around to others and love that which is repeatable and easily seen.  In other words, they build their audience.  As such, they shatter relationship and lives in which these relationships are contained.

My intention is not to suggest the complete eradication of social media and the audience it enjoys.  Indeed, were I to do so this blog, for better or worse, would be left unread.  Rather than decry social media as inherently evil I suggest we reframe our use of it and begin to imagine the world it beckons one to explore.  Such imagination and exploration might begin with a question: 'What does my desire for an audience or 'audience building' reveal about deeper longings, yearnings and cravings which remain unfulfilled?'

Perhaps the answer is written in an ancient story as told by an ancient audience in a beautifully woven phrase: "Wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger."  Yes. In this phrase I imagine a God who already knows my need for relationship and understands my longing for something more than mere audience.  Indeed, audience building is just an poorly expressed reality of a deep image bearing truth: I am created to be with others in deeply significant and vibrant ways!  As such, it is right that this is a season of celebration.  It is a season in which imaginations are ignited by the truth exclaimed in the name, "Imm - an - el," or "God with us!"

We are created for more than mere audience.  This season of Advent is the greatest expression of this truth.  It provides an opportunity for us to, at least for a moment, cease from our audience building and sink into the One who beckons us to journey with Him and others.  A journey into ever deepening and enriching ways to live; ways to be!