If you’ve been reading my posts, you know that I’m slightly a pretentious jerk when it comes to music. However, I do still get down to top 40 radio when I’m in the car every now and then. (And frankly, The Biebs is killing it lately.) As I was bumping “TODAY’S BEST MUSIC” (why is it that every top 40 station say it’s “today’s best music”? Do they know what else is out there? How do they know that they have the BEST music available?) in my car, I heard a song that I immediately fell in LOVE with. That song was “I Took A Pill In Ibiza” by Mike Posner. I’m definitely not in favor of popping pills because “f**k it was something to do”, but this song speaks to a longing deep within every one of us on this planet.
The entire song, Mike Posner talks about how alone he feels. He had the hit single “Baby Please Don’t Go”, and it became “the pop song people forgot”. He talks about having one-night stands with girls because he’s afraid to open up to them, since he doesn’t know who to trust. He also says how nobody should want to be him in the chorus.
“But you don't wanna be high like me
Never really knowing why like me
You don't ever wanna step off that roller coaster and be all alone
You don't wanna ride the bus like this
Never knowing who to trust like this
You don't wanna be stuck up on that stage singing
Stuck up on that stage singing”
DANG. Even though almost EVERYBODY in America (or the world…? I honestly don’t know how popular Mike Posner is outside of the U.S.) knows who he is, he feels completely alone. And that’s where our longing comes in. We all want to be known. There’s a difference too between people knowing who you are, and being KNOWN. People knowing who you are means that somebody knows your name, maybe what you do, and would say “hi” to you while passing you by. Being KNOWN means having someone you can confide in when you have a problem or a struggle. Being KNOWN means having someone know who you are at your core, having someone to laugh with, and having someone to cry with when times are tough.
We all long to be known. While I firmly believe that the best way to be TRULY known at the DEEPEST LEVEL POSSIBLE is to have a relationship with Jesus Christ (get in contact with me on the contact form if you want to know more about Jesus. I am not at all kidding), I don’t want to alienate anyone from understanding the importance of being known. We all need people and face-to-face communication (social media and just texting people doesn’t cut it). We were created to be in community with each other.
When we don’t have community, be become lonely. Neuroscientist Dr. John Cacioppo has discovered that loneliness affects our health, and even wrote a book on the matter. When we’re lonely, we’re more stressed, our immune system tanks, and our cardiovascular function suffers. With this in mind, we should be awoken to the dangers of isolating ourselves from other people. Not only do we suffer by not having the deep connections we need, causing ourselves to begin to slip into depression, which makes the drive to seek community drop drastically—causing the isolation to last longer.
I’m not saying this to bum you out if you’re at a spot in life where you’re having a hard time finding friends, but to encourage you to keep trying, because having friends is VITAL to our well being. So please don’t give up, but keep trying. If you need community, call a friend from back home. FaceTime a family member. We are meant to be known.