Four days ago, during my morning scroll down the Twitter streets, I bumped into a video of Nigerian pop musician, Seyi Shay, enduring a tragic fall on stage during a performance at an award ceremony the night before. Some think she made an amazing comeback, making it look as though it was all part of the dance routine, but that’s being rather kind… she fell. Hard. And it was embarrassing.
The natural reaction? To laugh and/or feel pity and retweet, so as to share with the rest of my timeline – and their timeline – the mini social media tragedy, and, of course, also indicate that I too am up-to-date with the goings on in pop culture. But what if before every double tap, tag or decision to quote that tweet, we paused and thought: WWJD if this was His social media page?
How weird is it to think of Jesus with a Twitter account? (@Jesus_C? @Messiah? @SOG?) Yet, when we really take a moment to think about it, our Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and Facebook pages are platforms just as significant and powerful as the mountaintops Jesus preached and taught from. And if they are one-and-the-same, are we preaching the same message He would? Do our lives of love start and end IRL or extend to our social media?
The truth is your actions online matter just as much as your actions in both the physical and spiritual realm. But if I’m not the one doing the posting, does it really matter that much? A ‘harmless’ retweet isn’t really just that if it portrays someone in a bad light, humiliates another, endorses sin, steals joy, causes offence, encourages degrading language or promotes hate – and, yes, that includes abuse targeted at President Donald Trump (whether or not you feel he deserves it).
As Christians, we have to be intentional in our mission to portray the Jesus we want everyone to know – on and offline. We can’t afford to be complacent and roll with the norm, because we might be in the world but we far from of it. It might seem excessive to be so cautious about something as basic as liking a photo on Instagram that shows off too much skin or favouriting a tweet that humiliates a colleague, but these seemingly ‘little’ actions are the “small foxes” referred to in Songs of Solomon (2:15) – the ones that spoil our vineyards if they remain uncaught.
We are representatives (spokesperson; mouthpiece; example) of Jesus on Earth, designed to bear the very stamp of His nature, and we all need to keep working hard not to let anything that shows off a characteristic contrary to who He is be found in us – even if it’s simply liking a video of a celebrity you don’t know falling on stage.
You know that tiny, little voice that tells us something isn’t a good idea, even when we’re about to make the simplest of decisions? We need to acknowledge and listen to that voice more often. And if we know in our hearts that @SOG (that’s my favourite – Son of God) wouldn’t give it a double tap, I don’t think we should either.
The natural reaction? To laugh and/or feel pity and retweet, so as to share with the rest of my timeline – and their timeline – the mini social media tragedy, and, of course, also indicate that I too am up-to-date with the goings on in pop culture. But what if before every double tap, tag or decision to quote that tweet, we paused and thought: WWJD if this was His social media page?
How weird is it to think of Jesus with a Twitter account? (@Jesus_C? @Messiah? @SOG?) Yet, when we really take a moment to think about it, our Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and Facebook pages are platforms just as significant and powerful as the mountaintops Jesus preached and taught from. And if they are one-and-the-same, are we preaching the same message He would? Do our lives of love start and end IRL or extend to our social media?
The truth is your actions online matter just as much as your actions in both the physical and spiritual realm. But if I’m not the one doing the posting, does it really matter that much? A ‘harmless’ retweet isn’t really just that if it portrays someone in a bad light, humiliates another, endorses sin, steals joy, causes offence, encourages degrading language or promotes hate – and, yes, that includes abuse targeted at President Donald Trump (whether or not you feel he deserves it).
As Christians, we have to be intentional in our mission to portray the Jesus we want everyone to know – on and offline. We can’t afford to be complacent and roll with the norm, because we might be in the world but we far from of it. It might seem excessive to be so cautious about something as basic as liking a photo on Instagram that shows off too much skin or favouriting a tweet that humiliates a colleague, but these seemingly ‘little’ actions are the “small foxes” referred to in Songs of Solomon (2:15) – the ones that spoil our vineyards if they remain uncaught.
We are representatives (spokesperson; mouthpiece; example) of Jesus on Earth, designed to bear the very stamp of His nature, and we all need to keep working hard not to let anything that shows off a characteristic contrary to who He is be found in us – even if it’s simply liking a video of a celebrity you don’t know falling on stage.
You know that tiny, little voice that tells us something isn’t a good idea, even when we’re about to make the simplest of decisions? We need to acknowledge and listen to that voice more often. And if we know in our hearts that @SOG (that’s my favourite – Son of God) wouldn’t give it a double tap, I don’t think we should either.
Awesome! The thought of always considering what Jesus may think in any given circunstance makes it easier to make Godly decisions. Esp on SM. I'm sure in the end, it's still part of God working through us no matter the medium
ReplyDeleteI think so
ReplyDelete