Why Your Posts Are Part of the Problem

Yesterday, we elected a new President.   It wasn’t the Presidential Candidate I thought would win.  I really thought Clinton had it.  I was not a fan of either so I have no idea exactly how I feel, but I was more saddened (not surprised) when I opened up Facebook this morning.  Why was I saddened?  Because while we all have a right to share our opinion, most of us just shouldn’t!  

Over the past year I have read in a variety of books and articles how our lives online have hurt us.  I have been especially impacted by Craig Groeschel’s book, “#Struggles: Following Jesus in A Selfie-Centered World.” I don’t think social media is bad, I actually love it!  I have lived in 6 states and 2 foreign countries, travelled a lot in my earlier years and I love people, so it is an amazing way for me to be in the lives of so many far and wide.  

But we were never intended to live our lives online.  We were made for relationships.  Real relationships.  That means connecting our soul with others and that rarely happens online.  Online breeds superficial, unfiltered, edited responses to life.  It gives us a false sense of celebrity as we share our every move, thinking the world wants to know.  That may work with a small group of followers or friends but you would NEVER have a good coffee shop conversation with 1,000 people.  It just wouldn’t be productive or beneficial.  

I Corinthians 10:23 says "Everything is permissible," but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible," but not everything is edifying.

We are not famous.  Our platform is faulty if we are assuming it gives us celebrity.  We need to make our voice heard but unfortunately that voice gets lost in over saturated newsfeed.  People cannot take the overwhelming responses good, bad and ugly to the election process and the results we saw unfold into the wee-hours of this morning.  We were not made to effectively process all of that.  The non-stop barrage of in your face responses to the world enforces depressive tendencies and studies are now reflecting this connection with a rise in depression and suicide, I just read a great article in TIME magazine (November 7, 2016) about this very thing.  

When I was living in London for a semester during college, I got to experience the term stimulus overload.  Living by the hospital meant I heard sirens non-stop.  It was hard to sleep or focus as first, but by the time I came back to the States, I didn’t even notice the sound.  My brain couldn’t take it so it made the proper adjustments and filtered out the sound so I could function.  I see this same phenomenon happening online.  The very tool that once gave us a voice is now silencing it because its just too much! 

Face to face communication involves non-verbal communication that get lost in our social media posts, not to mention unscripted conversations include more than 140 characters.  You may drop a controversial bomb in the midst of a two-hour lunch with your bestie, but the take away is tons of other topics and perspectives.  It adds to the dimensions of the conversation and the relationship even if its disagreement, but social media is relational-free opinions and its only creating a divide between us and anyone who disagrees.  

Get offline, get out with friends, or upgrade an acquaintance to a friend by hanging out and having shared experiences.  Share those opinions over coffee and allow the opinion to do more than scroll across someone’s face in between classes, meetings or lines during errands.  Get used to not using the delete button when giving your two cents.  Take the chance to say it wrong and hear how you could have rephrased it.  You maybe be surprised how much better life is offline! 

That One Thing That Could Help Your Day Go Way Better

If you don't know, I am a youth pastor.  I have been at the same church for almost 14 years and have worked with teenagers over 15 years.  (By the way, teenagers ROCK)!  Right now we are working through a book by Craig Groeschel called "#Struggles: Following Jesus In A Selfie-Centered World."  This book is truly insightful and relevant to some of our greatest needs in our current culture. 

This week we looked at a topic that I think all of us could use more of!  That is the topic of...

ENCOURAGEMENT!!!

I don't need to regurgitate back to you what Craig had to share, because if that is what you wanted, you could read the book.  As an activity to do in connection with this chapter, I took the 5x7 index cards and wrote each person's name in the group at the top.  Then we passed the cards around.  We were to write something encouraging to the person whose name was listed at the top, and by the end everyone would have a card with encouragements from each other. 

The funny thing was, it was like Christmas morning.  Everyone was eager to get their cards and then the gushing started as everyone ohh'ed and ahh'ed over the comments they had received.  I was actually surprised at my own reaction to my card.  It was amazing!  In that exercise, I realized, we all need more of that.   Instead of just using Facebook to take a million selfies and post your breakfast, take some time to write encouraging posts on your friends' walls. 

Let's be honest, this world beats us down!!! If we aren't hearing personal criticisms, we are seeing the depressing news feed filled with a constant stream of political slams, criminal happenings and overall human cruelty.  While the occasional animal video is fun and happy, its really not enough to overcome the constant crap that clutters up my feed! (Can I get an AMEN?!)  I need more!  So how can we be encouraged? Here are

3 Ways to Infuse Your Life With Encouragement:

1. Read the Bible - Spending time in God's word encourages me.  I am reminded of a God who created me and loves me.  The Psalms can be especially wonderful in this department, but it is not the only book.  If you aren't used to reading the Bible, I suggest you download the YouVersion Bible App, its free!  You can discover plans that fit you and each day there is a reading for you to follow.  Its easy and it works! 

2.  Look in the Mirror - This isn't to do your make-up, shave your beard or fix your hair, but to see yourself and while you are taking a gander, say 3 things that you love about who you are.  I don't just mean your best body parts either.  What do you like about your character or personality?  If you don't know yourself well enough to do so, then take a personality test and find out more about who you are. 

3. Be An Encourager - There is this amazing boomerang effect to our words.  What we put out there, comes back to us!  And let's face it, life is not all about us, but others.  When we put our focus on the gems of friends and family we have, we can begin to realize the beauty in our lives that we never knew was there.  We also make an impact in other's lives, which is amazing!!!  When we practice encouragement, we will be happier people and will probably hear encouragement back.  I did the card exercise for my teens, but I was also greatly impacted. 

Let me just close this by saying, I don't necessarily know you, but I'm sure if you are reading this, you are trying in life.  There is something to be said for effort.  You, no doubt, have many amazing qualities whether you see them or not. 

Go out today and BE ENCOURAGED!!!!