The Fear of Missing Out
Premium notebook maker, Musubi, recently announced their decision to remove any FOMO (fear of missing out) language from their products and their descriptions. If you aren’t familiar with this concept, it is the notion that one may miss out on what others are enjoying. It is linked to increased anxiety, mostly as the result of our extreme social media connectivity. The move by Musubi was notable because while I have seen an increase in this phenomenon, I have not seen any business openly seek to help make this better.

With this announcement, what did Musubi mean? What actions were they willing to take? This meant getting rid of specific requirements they had (such as needing to be present at a specified time if they wanted to receive insider information or have the opportunity to be part of special releases). However, most prominent was their removal of specific language such as 'limited edition,' instead referring to their releases only based on basic descriptions (size, color, type).

As a Christian, this concept of missing out concerns us because it displaces our contentment in Christ with a desire for commodities or circumstances. Musubi’s decision then caused me to think more deeply about the subject and its impact on Christian life. One aspect of that is how we go about presenting the gospel.

The Fear of Missing the Gospel
Long before the fear of missing out was a designated symptom of society’s failing health, Christians aligned the gospel with a similar agenda. In a unique way, Christians developed their own fear of missing out language and adapted it to a gospel presentation. They removed the seriousness of sin, mystified the concept of hell, and urged hearers to receive Christ to have their best life now.

Pushing aside the future glory of heaven, a place whose wonder is limited by our human imaginations, many fixate on the current day. They explain that God wants them happy now, and so, if they would only come to Him, he will make their lives better. This is not untrue, but there remains a difference between the happiness in circumstances they present and the contentment in Christ that the gospel contends. As a result, in our endeavor to appeal to a person's fear of missing out, I fear we have missed out by not holding onto a true gospel. By catering to this need, we presented a gospel that is not sensible but sensational, not sustainable, but unstable.

The Fear of Missing the Lord
Indeed, those without Christ should have a fear of missing out, but a fear of missing out on an eternity with our Lord. The language we adopt should convey that. We have minimized the sinfulness of sin and the atrociousness of hell, failing to capture the seriousness of eternity adequately. While reading a book by J.B. Hixson last week, he not only asserted the same premises but made a profound point: when sharing God's truth, we should use God's truth. Now that's my paraphrase, but he was issuing a call to use biblical language in the gospel. In reality, that should not be that profound of a point, but it became a noteworthy moment in his book because so few people do this. The Bible stands on its own clarity, and therefore, the Bible establishes the reality that one may miss out on forgiveness of sins and eternity in Christ’s presence.

Furthermore, the fear of missing out on an eternity with our Lord should generate an urgency that supercedes all other priorities. This is not conveyed by softening the gospel because it offers little difference to the worldly life that many are already living. Even the younger generations have larger homes, more playthings, and little need for something that calls for a sacrifice of one's own life. Instead, the urgency comes from the severity of sin and the catastrophe of its consequences.

We want people to fear missing out: missing out on God's forgiveness through Christ, missing out on contentment that comes from knowing Him, and missing out on the permanent joy of eternity. Our fear is not that they are missing out on this life, but that they will miss out on the next life.

The book by J.B. Hixson referenced in this article is The Top 10 Reasons Why Some People Go to Hell: And the One Reason No One Ever Has To! You can learn more about that book by clicking here. You can also read my review of this book here. Please note this review is my own and not necessarily reflective of the IFCA.