The Social Network: A Response

I am rather refreshed when I encounter a good movie.  Unfortunately, that occurs less and less often these days.  However, I was pleasantly surprised by The Social Network, the story behind Facebook and its founder, Mark Zuckerberg.  This movie has all those classic aspects that make a film wonderful: compelling characters, intelligent plot structure, tension and release; but it also offers an emotional bang through its timeliness; in general with the popularity of Facebook and in particular with my own life.  I was riveted at the tenacity of Mark in his entrepreneurial quest because of my own similar aspirations.  I want Mark's drive, work-ethic, and clarity of mission and yet I do not envy him.  His is, in a way, an oddly tragic story.  Despite being the youngest billionaire in the world, the king of social connecting, seems utterly disconnected.

Nailing down Mark's reason for pursuing Facebook is hard, but I believe it is a yearning to be accepted, to belong.  And yet that passion for friendship pushes away his only friend.  I felt pity on Mark in the final scene as keeps refreshing his computer, waiting for a friend confirmation. Jesus' once said, "what does it profit a man if he gains the world but forfeits his soul?"  I was challenged to asses my own definitions of success.  

So often, success is bound up in material things such as money and fame.  I know that behind my sometimes pleasant-appearing character, a selfish boy is lurking, wanting all eyes and all praise on him.  This is why I, like many others, take criticism so hard, because critique says "you can do better" and what I want to hear is "you are perfect."  In essence, I want to be God.  And yet, gracefully, I am not.

I once heard that sin is merely the perversion of something good.  For example, sex was created to be a beautiful gift that brought life into the world, but perversion has turned it into something vastly different, bringing instead death into our world.  There is something good underneath the scars of our pride: a longing to be like God, the perversion is we dropped the "like" from that statement.  We have always had a divine spark within that begs us to be something more than we currently are; not just better, but utterly different.  And this is indeed a goal worth dying for.

Mark Zuckerberg wanted to be something different and focused his vision upon that goal with piercing clarity.  Yet he lacked clarity in what it meant to be different, in what his soul truly longed for and he found himself further away than when he started.  Success in life is not bound up in accomplishments, accolades, money, or even relationships but in being like the one whose name is synonymous with love.  This and only this can satisfy the longings of our souls.  At the risk of sounding cliche, we are all like Mark waiting for the right person to approve our friend request, hoping that it will somehow change us, but I am afraid they rarely do. The approval we seek is seen most clearly in the life and death of Jesus, God's way of saying He accepts us.  And it this acceptance, perhaps only this acceptance, that will actually change us.

May we as a people seek redemption for our perverted attempts at being like God and filter all our markers of success through the lens of love.  May we know His love and may it make us different, make us new, and make us like God.  Amen