Best of the Year

One of my favorite things this time of year is the “best of” lists. The books, the films, TV shows, the people, songs that have mattered most this year; the sights and sounds that best characterize the year 2024. This week the Oxford English Dictionary announced their “word of the year.” And it is “brain rot” which can be defined as the deterioration of a person’s mind as a result of overconsumption of online content considered to be trivial or unchallenging.^[1] It “describe[s] both the cause and effect of low-quality, low-value content found on social media and the internet, as well as the… negative impact that consuming this type of content is perceived to have on an individual or society.”^[2] Perhaps you have witnessed, or even experienced, such “mental stagnation” this year?

The great irony is that we have determined that one of the things that matters most in 2024 is that we spend too much time on things don’t really matter. Now I’m not here to beat anyone up over their scrolling habits. I’m neither a doctor nor a mental health expert so I can’t speak to the suspected impact of excessive gaming and “zombie scrolling” (depression, despair, desensitized mind, etc)^[3]. But I’m sure you know the effects that your digital habits have on you. If not, ask your family and friends; they’ll tell you.

Paul’s Prayer for the Philippians

In today’s reading from Philippians (1:3-11), the Apostle Paul reveals that his prayer is that our love would overflow and that we would be able to determine what really matters. Let’s look again at verses 9-11 in greater detail. Paul writes:

Philippians 1:9-11 (NRSVue)

⁹And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight ¹⁰ to help you to determine what really matters, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, ¹¹ having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.

Let’s break this down phrase by phrase.

This is my prayer. Paul has a posture of prayer positioned towards God. He depends on God to complete the work that he has started (1:6). Here he condenses into a single, pregnant phrase his desires for the Philippian church and looks to God to make it happen.

That your love may overflow more and more. The focus of his prayer is a desire to see the church overflow with love. “More and more” qualifies that it is anything but stagnant; it’s living and active, it’s growing. It’s love that’s not just enough to get by. It’s not the bare minimum. No, it bubbles up and overflows. It’s a love that can’t be contained but fills its human container to overflowing. Surprisingly, Paul doesn’t immediately specify the object of this love. Love what? Love whom? Love things? Love people? We may be justified in understanding based on the wider teaching of Scripture that the object of this love is first God and then one another, the greatest commandments according to Jesus, the ones on which depend the entire law of God and the prophets (Matt 22:34-40). Thus, Paul is here telling the church that what he thinks matters most is that we love God and each other with an active love that grows and goes forth; it doesn’t stagnate.

With knowledge and full insight. It is his prayer that love overflow with knowledge and insight. This is not a love that loves indiscriminately, because not all things are equally worthy of our love and attention. His prayer is that our ability to detect what is good and beautiful and worthy would grow along with our love. Otherwise, love that loves everything becomes destructive. We were not made to love everything since not everything is for our good. Imagine going to a buffet, simply loving to eat without limit: I will eat and I will eat and I will eat. Loving in this way will leave you sick to your stomach whereas loving while actively growing in knowledge and discernment will leave you fulfilled.

To help you determine what really matters. Why does Paul pray in this way? What is he expecting will happen? After love, the second goal of his prayer is that we would be able to discern, detect, determine what really matters, being able to tell what on the buffet of life is best. At any given moment, we can be engaged in any number of activities. Not all of them have lasting, if any, significance whatsoever. One popular social network measures the amount of time spent on it in terms of bananas. “This year you have scrolled the equivalent of 50,000 bananas.” You’re telling me that this year I could have peeled 50,000 bananas? I’m not sure what would have been more productive, the bananas or the scrolling. Either way, it sounds like a slippery slope!

In any case, notice here that Paul does not openly tell us what really matters, but he says that we will have help to determine what really matters. We will determine ourselves, but not in some radically detached sort of way. No, love will guide the way, the Kingdom of God being the framework. Paul’s prayer is that we would actively pursue the good life as part of a kingdom lifestyle: growing in love, ever gaining understanding, developing our ability to discern what’s excellent, what’s best, what really matters.

The beauty of humanity and the Christian faith is that what matters to you is not necessarily what really matters to me. We need different things to matter to different people otherwise things wouldn’t get done; we’d be incomplete. What does matter is that we not become sluggish, zombified screen addicts. We were not made to be passive, but to be active. That’s why it’s important for you determine—out of love—what matters to you because God has called and equipped you to participate in and lead to human flourishing as part of his kingdom as you.

Now when you think you have determined what really matters, submit it to the test of love: is what matters to me a result of overflowing for God and neighbor? Is it in line with God’s kingdom flourishing? If not, it can’t be what really matters. What really matters can’t matter if not born out of love with knowledge and insight.

So that in the day of Christ you may become pure and blameless. At Advent we anticipate the arrival of God’s chosen one, the Messiah, King Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us in human form, the one who firmly and definitively establishes God’s kingdom way of life among us. Later in life, he provides a way for us to be a part of God’s kingdom no matter our ethnicity, no matter our background, no matter our status, all through his sacrificial death on the cross and glorious resurrection from the dead. He is now seated at the right-hand of the Father and as we confess, he will return to judge. So the question for us is, what are we doing with the life that we’ve been given? What are we feeding on from the buffet of life?

Paul is saying here that when love grows in line with knowledge and we develop our ability to discern what really matters, it is then that we will be found pure and blameless on the day Christ returns to judge the living and the dead. This comes thanks to a “harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ” (1:10). Don’t you want that? Don’t you want to be pure? Don’t you want to flourish? Don’t you want to stand before Christ blameless? The world sells a version of flourishing but it is fleeting and does not lead to life. So actively pursue love. Develop those taste buds. Get a taste of the good life in Christ, unite yourself to him by faith. Learn to love more and more.

Summary

To summarize, Paul has determined that what really matters is having love that overflows more and more so that we can determine what really matters. This might just be the remedy to so-called brain rot. Whereas brain rot is a call to consume, we are called to create as much as we consume.^[4] More generally, this is a call to be active rather than passive; active in working out faith, love, discernment.

But know that it doesn’t all depend on you; the one who began a good work in you will bring it to completion (1:6). It is God who is at work in us to enable wanting and working for his good pleasure (2:13). Like Paul turns to God in prayer, so too must we in faith.

Closing: Verse of the Year

According to the most popular Bible app, the verse of the Bible that was the most shared, bookmarked, and highlighted this year comes from the same book as today’s reading^[5]: Philippians 4:6-7 (CSB):

Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

As we determine what really matters, we increase in knowledge and understanding. We learn which fears are justified while others disappear. Instead of being paralyzed by fear, we turn to God as Paul did with the result that the peace of God guards our hearts and minds as it has for centuries of believers.

On this second Sunday of Advent, may our hearts and minds be turned towards God. May your heart be prepared for the arrival of King Jesus. May our minds be switched on to the things of God and the things that really matter: family, friends, faith, real food, and flourishing.

This Advent May our minds be applied to “brain food” rather than brain rot.^[6] May you exercise your mind to determine what really matters as love for God and neighbor increases. May your “best of 2024” be an active faith that turns to God and follows Christ every day of the year.

Amen.

References

1. “Oxford Word of the Year 2024,” Oxford University Press, December 2024, https://corp.oup.com/word-of-the-year/. ↑
   

2. Benedict Heaton, “‘Brain Rot’ Named Oxford Word of the Year 2024,” Oxford University Press, 2 December 2024, https://corp.oup.com/news/brain-rot-named-oxford-word-of-the-year-2024/; “Oxford Word of the Year 2024.” ↑
   

3. Newport Institute Staff, “Brain Rot: The Impact on Young Adult Mental Health,” Newport Institute, 10 January 2024, https://www.newportinstitute.com/resources/co-occurring-disorders/brain-rot/. ↑
   

4. Megan Young, “In the Margins: Avoiding Brain Rot in a World Full of Distractions,” 5 December 2024, https://thebaptistrecord.org/in-the-margins-avoiding-brain-rot-in-a-world-full-of-distractions/. ↑
   

5. “YouVersion’s Verse of the Year Reflects Global Trend of Seeking Peace through Prayer – YouVersion,” YouVersion –, 2 December 2024, https://www.youversion.com/press/youversions-verse-of-the-year-reflects-global-trend-of-seeking-peace-through-prayer/. ↑
   

6. Diocese of Manchester, “Rediscovering Focus and Meaning in a Distracted World – Diocese of Manchester,” 2024, https://www.manchester.anglican.org/rediscovering-focus-and-meaning-in-a-distracted-world.php. ↑