Excuse me while I rant for a minute. On social medial, about social media (ironic I suppose). I have a love-hate relationship with the entirety of social media. I use my Facebook to communicate, keep track of the friends I have literally all over the world, and support some causes very near to my heart. However, most days I hate how people use social media to proclaim their thoughts or beliefs on something. As if social media wasn’t impersonal enough, we now feel the need to share a blog post condemning the entire race of humanity (maybe a slight exaggeration).
Bloggers, we are partly at fault for this over-sharing. As soon as something hits mainstream media, Christian and non-Christian bloggers alike rush to their screens to publish their monologue of thoughts, opinions, and sometimes even scripture to back up their side of the story. Then we encourage our readers to tweet, share, and like our post, causing the words we write to spiral through the social media universe. (sometimes I wish this would happen to my blogs, but that is a different story) My heart breaks at some the blogs I see shared on my newsfeed. While I want to believe in my heart my Facebook friends are well-meaning, I often want to shake them by the shoulders and say, “Stop sharing and go buy someone a cup of coffee!”
This week my frustration has reached a boiling point as I have read and seen countless examples of Christians responding with hate and judgment to tender, heart-breaking situations. I sent one of my dear friends a text and said, “I hate that I claim to serve the same God they claim to serve.” My heart breaks for the broken, the hurting, and those who are silently suffering. It also breaks for the people in my life who seem to have forgotten our mandate was to “love God and love others.” It is not complicated. It does not require arguing the nuances of the Bible. It is simple.
So today, before you hit share on that article, stop and put on your critical thinking hat. Take a minute to ask yourself, “Is this showing love to my neighbor (or Facebook friend or random stranger who may read it)?” And better yet, turn off your Facebook and go to the nearest Starbucks and buy someone a cup of coffee. Or pay for someone’s lunch. Or make your neighbor cookies. Take the hard step of doing something, not just clicking the share button. If we all did that, this world would be a better place.
