Can They See God Through My Feed?
Facebook was down earlier this week. For several hours on Monday, Facebook–along with other services they own such as Instagram and WhatsApp–were inaccessible. I thought about writing this article about how the world was still able to keep spinning despite those sites being down for a few hours, but their downtime also brought to mind something I have been thinking about–and praying about–quite a lot lately.
One of the main features of social media can be both a blessing and a curse. One of the things we love about Facebook and similar outlets is the ability to share pictures and other personal things with our friends and family. Pictures of our children, vacation photos, and just random shots of what is going on in our lives; all of these pepper our social media feeds and are seen by people throughout each day.
And that’s fine. What I am getting ready to say is not meant to cause people to stop sharing pictures or memories on social media. Personally, I have taken a break from doing that, but that was a personal choice made for several reasons and I still enjoy seeing pictures from friends and family.
That said, sometimes it is worth asking ourselves if people can see more than me on my social media feed. Specifically, could someone scroll through your feeds and see God at all?
There are a couple of things to consider as you review your social media:
- If you were to go back through the last, say, dozen or so posts, how many of those posts would have anything to do with Bible study, invitation to church events, or helpful Scriptural material? Maybe it is a favorite Bible verse or sharing information about your congregation’s Gospel Meeting. But what if those things just are not there? People might know I’m a husband and dad. They might know a favorite hobby of mine. They might know what team I root for. But would they have any idea I am a Christian?
- When you write captions or notes, who shines through? If all of it is basically “look at me, look at me, look at me,” then, to say it bluntly, you are blocking God from other people. One thing we have to be careful of is that this can build on itself. When I share something about me and get lots of likes or positive comments, I am going to be more likely to share more about myself and more and more that makes me look like the hero. And the more I do that, the more I block people from seeing God through me.
It really boils down to being thoughtful and realizing that all of our lives–including social media–is to be used to shine God’s glory in the world. So, before you post, just ask yourself: if someone were to scroll down through my stuff, how far would they have to scroll to know that I love God.
Instead of telling people how great I am…use all you can to share with the world the Great I AM!
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AUTHOR: Adam Faughn
