Tag Archives: Likes

Life’s Chorus

May 1, 2025 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

[The chief priests and Pharisees] looked for a way to arrest [Jesus], but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.
Matthew 21:15 (NIV)

In theatre, it’s called the Chorus.

Every major theatrical production has a Chorus. It’s where almost every actor begins their journey on stage. For me, it was the musical Mame my freshman year in high school. Craig got the lead as a sophomore because he was over six feet tall and the only dude in school who could naturally grow a full beard.

I was in the Chorus.

I was a minion switching costumes for each of the big production numbers. An anonymous party-goer at Mame’s New York City penthouse apartment in one scene, then suddenly a mint-julep sipping southern gentleman in a tux later in the show. A face in the crowd.

As I studied acting in college, I was taught the importance of doing a character study for any role I’m playing.

But what if I’m a member of the Chorus?

It’s a legitimate question. It’s a legitimate role.

In today’s chapter, the crowd plays a significant role.

The crowd welcomes Jesus to Jerusalem in a triumphant parade in which they shout His praises, wave palm branches, and spread their cloaks on the ground before His donkey.

The crowd has Jesus #trending. He’s who everyone is talking about. He’s all the buzz. So much so, in fact, that the religious leaders are indignant.

Later in the chapter, the indignant religious leaders try to trap Jesus in a debate. Jesus skirts His way out of the trap by leveraging his enemies’ fear of the crowd.

A third time (there’s that number three again) Matthew mentions Jesus’ enemies were so upset that they became determined to get rid of Him, but they were afraid of the crowd.

By the end of the week it will be a different scene in a different Act. The crowd will have switched costumes and will be calling on Pontius Pilate to crucify Jesus.

It’s easy to be dismissive of the Chorus in any musical, but it has a significant role to play. In the same way, it’s easy to pretend the crowd doesn’t exist in life, but it plays a larger role than I care to admit.

The number of “likes” and “comments” I get on social media from the crowd.

The movies, shows, and songs that the crowd is buzzing about.

The fashions and styles everyone in the crowd is wearing.

The fickle winds of popular opinion being tweeted, chanted, and shouted by the crowd online and in the media.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself wrestling with my own relationship with and participation in the crowd of life. I can’t escape it anymore than Jesus could escape it. He rode His donkey through the crowd shouting His praises. He knew the crush of the crowd following Him wherever He went for three years. He will feel the sting of the crowd turning on Him in the end. There is a Chorus in life whether I choose to recognize it or not. Sometimes I’m a part of it. Sometimes I’m on the outside being influenced by it.

As I ponder, I’m reminded of an observation that John made about Jesus and the crowd of Jerusalem:

Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person. John 2:23-25 (NIV)

I might not be able to escape the Chorus in my life’s production, but I can certainly be mindful of the role it’s trying to play in my story. I can be discerning. I can choose not to take the role when it’s offered. I, like Jesus, can choose whether to entrust myself to it or not. The further I get on this earthly journey, the more I think it wise to do so.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!

Chapter-a-Day

Silent and Deadly

May 15, 2024 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
Galatians 5:26 (NIV)

There are mornings on this chapter-a-day journey when I experience synchronicity. Something in the chapter dovetails perfectly with something else that I’ve read, seen, or considered in the recent past. It happened this morning with regard to a commencement address published in the Free Press by Robert Parham, an Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce. Entitled, “To the Class of 2024: You are All Diseased,” it is well worth the few minutes it will take to read it in its entirety.

The following section, in particular, caught my attention:

You live in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, yet you feel economic anxiety. The late Charlie Munger summarized it succinctly: “The world is not driven by greed. It’s driven by envy.” And in this era of instantaneous communication networks and social media, envy has been put into hyperdrive.

But envy has also been transformed and rebranded. Once a deadly sin, it became a virtue. We call it “fairness” (or sometimes “equity”) now and concentrate our attention on all the ways the world is “unfair.” Mostly the ways that lead to others in our peer group having more than us.

The world is unfair. Deeply so. It’s just that you’re the lucky ones. You won the birth lottery.

In today’s chapter, envy makes the list of “works of the flesh” that stand in opposition to the “fruits of the Spirit” that should be increasingly evident in the lives of every follower of Jesus. Envy makes the list along with things like sexual immorality, orgies, witchcraft, and drunkenness. Along my life journey, I’ve observed that it’s much easier for the institutional church to hone in on the ugly, scandalous, and often public sins like being an addict, sexually immoral, or a member of the local Wiccan coven. Envy is a “pretty” sin that gets both overlooked and ignored. I don’t remember one lesson or sermon in 40 years that took a good look at how destructive envy can be to both our spiritual health and our very lives.

If you’ve had your head buried in the sand somewhere, it should be noted that we are living in a culture with epidemic mental health issues in children and young adults. Drug overdoses, suicides, anxiety, and depression have increased to epidemic proportions. Researcher Jonathan Haidt traces this epidemic back to the introduction of the iPhone with a front-facing camera and an app called Instagram. Suddenly, everyone is taking selfies and publicly sharing their lives with the masses hoping to get “likes,” comparing themselves to others, and wanting to become “influencers.” It’s all driven by envy. We don’t compare ourselves to the billions of human beings who would love to live in our affluent sneakers. We compare ourselves to those few who have more than us: more likes, more fame, more followers, more money, more fashionable clothes, more prestige, more influence, prettier homes, cuter kids, etc.

I think we’re overdue in giving envy the attention it deserves. It is destroying the spiritual and mental health of an entire generation. The institutional church is silent on the subject.

I confess to you that one of the reasons that this topic resonates so deeply within me is because I have always struggled with envy. I didn’t even realize it until I started to really dig into my own flaws and weaknesses as an adult. One of the things I recognized in myself was the fact that I would feel intense antipathy, even hatred, towards certain people. In most cases, it was people I didn’t even know personally. As I confessed this and began digging into why I had these intensely negative feelings towards people I didn’t even know (and were probably really nice people), I realized that underneath it was envy. I wanted to experience the fame, influence, popularity, and prosperity these individuals had experienced. It was silly. It was nonsense. I feel awkward even admitting it, but it’s the truth. I had to repent of my attitude and address the envy that had crept into my heart and brain, silently influencing me for years without me recognizing it.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself grateful for the abundant blessings I enjoy every moment of every day without even thinking about it or stopping to recognize how good I have it. I am reminded of the unhealthy ways envy affected my life without me even recognizing it. I am motivated to continue to reduce the influence that the “works of the flesh” had in my life and increase the “fruits of the Spirit” in my motivations, my thoughts, my words, and my actions.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Seed and Heart-Soil

April 8, 2024 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

[Paul and Barnabas] returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said.
Acts 14:21b-22 (NIV)

Living in Iowa, one tends to earn a great appreciation for farmers. Even the Iowa Hawkeye football team wears a sticker on their helmets with the letters ANF (“America Needs Farmers”). I was raised in the city of Des Moines, but I still have learned a lot about farming simply by living here and knowing many people who did grow up on a farm, including Wendy.

I have a friend in the seed business. His job is to help his company’s seed produce as much of a yield as possible. As I asked him about his job, I found out that it had a lot to do with helping their farmer customers make sure the soil has the right chemical balance for the seed to thrive.

In today’s chapter, Paul and Barnabas conclude their first missionary journey, in which they visited towns on the island of Cyprus and Greek towns on the mainland north of there. By the end of the chapter, they return to home base in Antioch to report that many people believed in Jesus and they were able to establish gatherings of Jesus followers in towns throughout the region. That said, their experiences were mixed.

On Cyprus, they were invited to speak with the Roman Governor, who became a believer.

In Pisidian Antioch the reaction was mixed. The Jews there largely rejected Jesus’ Message, but many of the Gentiles in the town believed.

In the town of Iconium, many believed but this created great division within both the Jewish and Gentiles communities. Those who rejected Jesus’ Message plotted to have Paul and Barnabas stoned to death.

In Lystra, the large Greek community were wowed by a miracle, but they missed the connection to Jesus’ Message. The crowd declared Paul and Barnabas the incarnation of Zeus and Hermes and tried to offer sacrifices to them. The plotters from Iconium arrive in Lystra and the crowds end up turning on Paul and Barnabas, stoning Paul until they thought he was dead.

In Derbe, everything seems to have gone well and many people believed Jesus’ Message.

As I meditated on the diverse general responses Paul and Barnabas received to Jesus’ Message, I couldn’t help but think of Jesus’ parable of the Sower. The seed is tossed, but it falls on different kinds of soil. The success of the seed to end up taking root, growing, and producing a yield was dependent on the condition of the soil on which it landed.

I had a friend and fellow blogger who just last week asked me about these chapter-a-day posts, and how I manage my expectations with regard to the number of visits, clicks, and likes I receive. The truth is that the only way I’ve been able to keep doing these posts is by constantly reminding myself to surrender any expectations I might have. Like Paul and Barnabas, and like Jesus’ parable, I am the sower. The yield is dependent on the heart-soil of each one who reads or listens.

The same is true as I attempt to live, act, and relate to others in the fruit of God’s Spirit and share Jesus’ love with others. Some may sense something in me that attracts them. Others may be repelled. I can’t control the heart-soil of those around me, I can only control the quality of the seed I’m sowing in how I live and love.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

What the Camera Sees

August 4, 2022 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

Kish had a son named Saul, as handsome a young man as could be found anywhere in Israel, and he was a head taller than anyone else.
1 Samuel 9:2 (NIV)

The other day in my post I mentioned how much change I have observed in our world and culture with the advent of the internet and social media. It has been fascinating to observe the dawn of such a powerful, global medium of communication. As with every communication medium, it has both the potential for so much good and the potential for so much evil.

Like most people, I have enjoyed exploring, learning, and using different online tools and social media like this blog I’ve been writing now for sixteen years. With two grandchildren living on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, I am so grateful for photos, video, and FaceTime. I’ve enjoyed that social media has allowed for closer, more frequent direct connections with family, classmates, and friends. I have been amazed to watch groups of people supporting others in times of need and crisis that never would have been possible before the internet because everyone was scattered around the world and we simply lost track of one another with no good way to effectively and easily communicate with so many people.

Along the way, I have also observed how things are communicated on social media. I have thought long and hard about how I want to use this tool and what I choose to communicate. I’ve observed that it is easy to start living life almost completely online. For those who are physically isolated for one reason or another, that brings incredible freedom. At the same time, I’ve observed that it becomes a dangerous escape for others.

In the early days of the internet, I was part of a group chat with people from all over the world. What I discovered over time was that some individuals in the chat were themselves, while others in the chat had created a persona they wanted others to believe was them. One member messaged me privately to confess that everything they purported to be in the group was a lie. The person was lonely, depressed and life was out of control, so they lived a fantasy online life in a group chat, hidden behind a username.

I have also been fascinated to observe how people present themselves online and how “likes” and “views” have become intertwined in a person’s self-esteem and sense of self-worth. I’ve also learned that young people will sometimes have two social media accounts on the same platform. One is for the general public and parental viewing/oversight while the other “secret account” is for their private group of friends to post the things they don’t want mom and dad to see or read.

In my mass communication classes in college, I was drilled into me that we only see what the person behind the camera wants us to see. My professors in the 1980s were talking about news editors, publishers, and filmmakers. The internet has brought the power of mass communication to every person in the world and put it right in the palm of our hands. With our posts, tweets, and photos we project ourselves to the world. Our followers see and hear only what we choose to show them. So what am I choosing for others to see, and why?

In today’s chapter, the first thing we read about the young man who will become Israel’s first king is that he is tall and handsome and from a prominent family in the tribe of Benjamin. What a perfect description of an ideal political candidate. But what if underneath that handsome face and six-foot frame there lurks a tortured soul, hidden rage, or mental health issues? We only see what the author of 1 Samuel wants us to see. Just like me and my social media feed.

Over time, I have found myself posting far less on social media than I once did. It’s not that I made a specific rule for myself. I simply began asking myself honest questions about my motives and my choices, and I began to embrace that no one really needs to see a photo of my suitcase on a business trip or the cowboy guy on my flight. I want to be present with loved ones and friends in the moment, and less worried about making sure the world knows who I was with and what I was doing.

What do I want others to see? Just another wayfaring stranger with very normal problems, faults, and shortcomings. I’m following Jesus. I’m pressing on this earthly journey one day at a time, reading the Great Story, pondering things in the quiet, and trying to enjoy life and my good companions with whom I share this journey and whom I endeavor to love well.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

The Crowd

May 11, 2021 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

The large crowd listened to him with delight.
Mark12:37b (NIV)

I remember the first time I heard the delight of the crowd. I was twelve. It was what would be considered Middle School today, but then it was Junior High. I was running for the student government. I wrote a speech. I delivered it to the entire school assembled in the gymnasium. It delighted the crowd, and I confess: the crowd’s delight delighted me.

It was a really innocent moment as I look back on it and realize just how young I was. Who can look back on their coming-of-age years without both laughing and cringing? And of course, those same coming-of-age years is when I learned all the hard lessons of being “in” and/or “out” of different social groups. It did not take long for me to learn just how thin the line is between delighting the crowd and displeasing them.

The events of today’s chapter took place on Tuesday of the final week of Jesus’ earthly exile. It is the week of Passover, the biggest of the annual Jewish festivals and Jerusalem is swelling with crowds who have come to worship at the Temple. Mark established back in chapter three that the Chief Priests and religious power brokers began looking for an opportunity to kill Jesus. In chapter eight, Mark mentions it again.

As I read the chapter in the quiet, I found myself meditating on the role that “the crowd” plays in this escalating conflict between Jesus and the institutional religious leaders. Forty-eight hours before the events in today’s chapter, the crowd was cheering for Jesus as He entered the city on the back of a borrowed donkey. For two days, Jesus’ enemies have been publicly challenging Him with questions intended to trip Him. Instead, Jesus turns the tables on them time-and-time again.

The crowd is delighted.

Mark makes note that the institutional authorities are afraid of arresting Jesus because of the crowd.

The crowd is powerful on multiple levels. The crowd‘s delight is as potent and addictive as crack (“Look at all the “Likes”! Look at the page hits! OMG! I’m positively viral! I’m trending!”). The crowd can make you or break you.

The crowd is a fickle lover.

It’s easy for me to overlook it, but the crowd has been a constant player in Jesus’ story. Jesus has been with the crowd for three years. The crowd followed Him everywhere. The crowd pressed in on Him until He had to get into a boat and teach from out on the water. The crowd cheered when, multiple times, He sprung for an all-you-can-eat fish-sandwich buffet. The crowd quickly abandoned Him when He switched the menu and said that the real meal was His very own flesh-and-blood.

John noted…

…many people noticed the signs [Jesus] was displaying and, seeing they pointed straight to God, entrusted their lives to him. But Jesus didn’t entrust his life to them. He knew them inside and out, knew how untrustworthy they were. He didn’t need any help in seeing right through them. John 2:24-25 (MSG)

The crowd can be manipulated.

The crowd can be bought.

In about 48 hours, Jesus’ enemies will arrest Him at night out of sight of the crowd. They will quickly try him at daybreak while the crowd is still sleeping. A few hours later, the crowd will be screaming at the Roman Governor to nail Jesus to a cross.

In the quiet this morning, I can’t help but think about my own thoughts, feelings, and experiences with the crowd on this earthly journey. Along my life journey, I have regularly been in the various public spotlights even if it’s on a relatively small scale. I have had to navigate my own desires, emotions, reactions, responses, and experiences with the crowd. I’ve felt the crowd‘s delight, and I’ve know the crowd‘s displeasure.

As a follower of Jesus, I’ve learned that I can’t be a follower of the crowd. The paths are divergent. It’s too easy to showing up for the all-you-can-eat buffet of the nice sayings of Jesus that delight the crowd as they cut them out of context with a cultural exacto knife. Being a follower of Jesus means that while the crowds enjoy their fish sandwiches, Jesus beckons me to take up my cross and follow Him to an upper room where the menu is His flesh broken for me, His blood shed for me.

It is there that I see the crowd in Jesus’ context.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Random Thoughts, Wayfarer's Journal

Day 25: Ten Ways to Win Your Heart

October 19, 2011 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

30 Day Blogging Challenge Day 25: Ten Ways to Win Your Heart.

Okay, I kind of dropped the ball on this 30 day blogging challenge. In case you missed it, please know that I did not write these questions! This challenge was created by some (young, I’m suspecting) person over at Tumblr. I’m in the homestretch, so I might as well finish.

Share a good meal with me
Write me a real letter (the handwritten kind that you put in an envelope with a stamp on it and put it in that little box outside your house for the mail carrier to pick up and bring to me)
Join me for a summer evening at the baseball game
Back rub (with special attention around those shoulder blades)
A thoughtful gift (need not be expensive)
Buy me a tall, cold pint and have a chat with me
Refrain from reminding me that I’m a Vikings fan (this season)
Come see me on stage
Blueberry pop-tarts
Read my blog; post a comment!