On Walking Alone

This blog is a few months in coming.

There's a Dunkin Donuts down the road from my school, and a popular after-school activity involves walking and/or driving there to get some eatables so we're not hungry until 5:00.
I've frequenced this walk by myself numerous times; one time, i got thinking about it.
I enjoy walking alone.
When my parents started letting me drive myself places, i rather liked being alone in the car.
I'll tell you why.


Tuesday night I was watching the music video for Avril Lavigne's "Complicated".
i know, i know... laugh.
Everything that avril lavigne writes makes me want to throw up.
Like, its too catchy, the lyrics are stupid, and just in general... eww.
BUT.
This is the only song that's tolerable.
Because:
a) its got a thoughtful message
b) the bassline has one really cool harmony near the end
c) it made me think

anyway, watch the video.
then come back here and finish reading.


Alright.
So the video details a bunch of friends who go crash a mall.
They act like complete idiots.
For all we know, they live in rochester new hampshire.

So think about that for a moment.
What would you do if you went to the mall alone?
answer: you'd go shopping.
not shopping as a sport; that's something you do with friends.
When you go shopping, you actually buy things you need.

Consider a concert:
You go to a show alone, you go for the band.
But there's a subtlety that gets factored in when you go with friends;
you are no longer there just for the music.
Who pays $40+ to see a band if there's no one to share the experience with?
And that's exactly it.
You do things with friends for the experience.

Now go back and watch the video and listen to the words.
She's talking about how a guy (or possibly people in general) puts on a show for all his/our friends; he's not genuine like he is when he's alone.
The modifying factor here being other people.

So here's my point.
Humans are social creatures.
When you go to a show or the mall with friends, you're no longer there for the mall or a band. you're there for your friends.
Essentially, your focus switches; it goes from shopping or watching a band to hanging out with your friends.
Are you seeing what i'm saying?

When you go somewhere with your friends, you don't even think about where you're going; your destination isn't important.
What's important is the people you're with, and what you're doing with them.

When you go somewhere alone, you're more concerned with your destination; that's all there is to think about.

As a matter of fact, most of the time, what exactly you're doing is entirely unimportant.
You say, "lets hang out", and after you're hanging out, you figure out something to do.

So what's my point?
Think about your life.
Then think about your life without your friends, work, school, and other various distractions.
What's your focus?

Are we really doing anything except hanging out with friends and performing menial labor?
One of the first lines in that song is, "lay back, its all been done before".
And really, just about everything has been done before. (Unless you're an engineer)
So are we doing anything else besides re-tracing the steps of countless years of civilization before us? People have been hanging out with friends since before last names existed.

So yes, there is a way to do what's never been done before.
Most importantly for us as individuals is to have our focus on God all the time.
That's 100% an individual, personal relationship.
Sure, theres things like fellowship ("koinonia"), youth group, church, etc which we do together. But when you go home at night before you go to bed, we're talking about one-on-one with God.
That's something you have to do alone.

That's why i like walking and driving alone.
When there's no one around, you can let your mind wander, and you find out pretty quickly what your focus is on.
If you're hungry, you think about food.
If you're lonely, you think about other people.
Or maybe you start talking to your savior; maybe you start singing to him; maybe you dance around a little bit.
That's a good focus to have.

I found this verse highlighted in my bible:
"I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man in concerned about the Lord's affairs- how he can please the Lord. But a marriend man is concerned about the affairs of this world- how he can please his wife- and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord's affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world- how she can please her husband."
-1 Corinthians 7:32-34

If you take that out of context of marriage, you can apply that verse to what i'm saying here. Paul wanted the people of Corinth to be unconcerned with this world, because he wanted their full focus to be on God.