Icebergs vs Ocean Liners

You probably have heard that with icebergs, 80% of their mass is underwater, invisible – you just see the little top of the iceberg. And as it turns out, ocean liners – like, cruise liners – 80% of the structure is above the water. And what social media has done is turn all of us from icebergs into ocean liners, where most of our life is on display. The problem is, in your life, you’re going to hit icebergs. You’re going to hit real challenges, real pain, real loss, real suffering, and the testimony of maritime history is when an ocean liner meets an iceberg, the iceberg wins. You actually want to be an iceberg. You want 80% of your life to be hidden, not to be public, not to be visible. So, I’m a pretty public person in terms of what my job is, even if I weren’t on social media. And I’ve realised that I need a whole part of my life that’s truly private, that is, it’s truly done in secret. This is my life of prayer, this is my life of rest, this is my life of exercise, this is my life of practising my instruments – the musical instruments I play. And then I need a part of my life that I would call personal, which is done with other people but in-person, not done for display, not done for the world to see. And this is my life of friendship – of real friendship – of conversation, of accountability for the things that I care most about. And then I need to be very careful about that little 20% part that I show and thinking about how to be intentional about being truthful, being faithful, having integrity in what I show to the world. But you want 80% of your life to be out of sight, because real life comes from a hidden place.