Social Media and Christian Love

This is part of a post I wrote exactly eight years ago this week. I’m updating it a little but not by much. Most of my original message still stands. A lot has changed in our world, but sadly, my plea for people to shift their actions on social media, although many call for this same change, has not happened.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John  13: 34-35

In 2012, we had an election looming over us, just as we do today. Today, we suffer through the same bombardment of annoying political ads on TV and radio. Back then, I avoided them by using my DVR. Now I use streaming services and avoid most commercials. What’s a little harder to avoid, now as well as then, is the onslaught of personal attacks on social media. That, my friends, is worse, not better. Below is what I said about this:

Part of My 2012 Post

Why do my “friends” think I need to read every little bit of political propaganda that they find?  Some people choose to only post political comments during this time, and not just one a day. The frequency that some of them post these comments begs the questions:  “Do they have a life?  Are they doing anything else?” [2020 note, I know for many, thanks to Covid-19, they don’t.]

I don’t know why they think I want to log on to Facebook and read their political rants.  Granted, I can scroll right on past those messages, but it’s  frustrating when I have to scroll forever to find something friendly and non-political.

These people seem to have forgotten that Facebook and Twitter are forms of social media.  Social, not political.  Usually, when I hear the word social, I think of friendly gatherings, not attacks on people’s belief systems.  Unfortunately, those who seem bent on non-stop political posts often make derogatory comments about the people who disagree with them. In many cases, these are the very friends who turn around and like your baby and animal pictures.  Do they not realize how their negative comments alienate their friends and cancel out any good will from their “likes”?  In some cases, I’ve unfriended “friends” who forced their opinions on me non-stop.

We are a country of free speech.  You have the right to believe what you want to believe, but what happened to good manners?

What’s Changed Since Then?

In 2020, I have a better understanding of what’s happening to people online. I spend a good bit of time researching materials for training topics. A few months ago, while reading a white paper on Emotional Intelligence, I ran across a new term: cyber disinhibition. This phenomena explains why people say cruel and nasty things to each other online. Things they’d never say to a person face-to-face.

What is cyber disinhibition?

People are wired for face-to-face interaction. Communications online do not engage our brains properly. Cyber disinhibition—the situation that occurs when our treatment of others online doesn’t align with how we would treat them in person–is the culprit behind these angry social media attacks.

What causes cyber disinhibition?

When we’re face-to-face with someone, we have emotional centers of the brain that record everything the other person is saying and doing. This happens quickly, and unconsciously, in the brain’s subcortex. The brain processes this information and tells us how to respond. During this process, the prefrontal cortex inhibits any emotional impulse to do or say something that can hurt the other person. Online, without body language or tone, we’re flying blind. We’re not engaging these parts of the brain, so we lash out and say very unkind things.

This knowledge makes me feel better. Why? Because I can observe the text battles online through this lens. I, also, can force myself to think twice before I post. Those who don’t pause and think are, at that moment, behaving without emotional intelligence.

In John 13, Jesus washed the disciples feet and then told them to love one another. He asked them to do this, so people would see their love as an aspect of being one of his disciples. Try to keep this command in your mind when you venture onto social media, and maybe, you’ll avoid posting something you would never say in person.

Be kind. Be compassionate. Be forgiving.

Strength In Our Weaknesses

But Moses replied to the Lord, “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent-either in the past or recently or since You have been speaking to Your servant-because I am slow and hesitant of speech.”  Exodus 4:10

I hated giving presentations in front of my classmates. In the seventh grade, after one knee-knocking report, a friend told me, “You were as white as a ghost.”

In the ninth grade, a teacher called on me, but first admonished the class, “Now, everyone be quiet because Barbara has a soft voice, and we need to hear her.” I wanted to crawl under my seat.

If you know me now, you’re probably wondering how I could be the child in these two instances. I am, but I’m nothing like that now. In fact, my career involves speaking in front of people ALL. OF. THE. TIME. I’ve spoken to groups ranging in size from 3 people to an entire auditorium filled with standing room only.

I got over my fears.  Not quickly, but I did begin to face and deal with those fears by the time I was twenty.

Sometimes, God calls us to tasks we don’t understand, much less want to do. The Bible is full of people like that. Why does God delight in taking us into the uncomfortable? So, He can demonstrate his power through our weakness. People will not doubt the message came from Him when he uses someone in a powerful way that goes against their nature.

Here are some examples:

• Moses
• Simon Peter
• Sarah
• Esther
• Naomi
• Jonah

Who else can you name who found their calling through God’s power rather than their own?

Why Do We Love Superheroes?

Courtesy of Pixabay

Yesterday, I sent my grandchildren to school wearing superhero T-shirts.

Why?

The family of the six-year-old boy killed in the Townville school shooting requested that people attend his funeral in superhero clothing instead of suits and ties. Jacob loved superheroes, and the whole country embraced this idea.  Stores sold out of superhero-themed clothing, and many people wore them as they went about their day, even if they weren’t attending the funeral.

This got me to thinking about why we love superheroes.

Superheroes represent our need for someone who steps in and saves us from the bad guys. A person with supernatural abilities who has a knack of showing up when people need them, kicking the bad guys to the curb, and ensuring we’re safe.

I have good news for you!  He already exists!

• There is someone who is always there.
• There is someone who saves us.
• There is someone who keeps us safe.
• There is someone with supernatural abilities.
• There is someone who people turn to when they desperately need him, and he’s always there.

All we have to do is seek Him and He will be there. In fact, even when we forget to seek Him, He is there.

Who, you ask?

The Holy Trinity:  God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We love superheroes because our souls cry out for someone who provides us this love and safety.

In Isaiah, we see His power and our yearning:

We have a strong city;
    God makes salvation
    its walls and ramparts.
² Open the gates
    that the righteous nation may enter,
    the nation that keeps faith.
³ You will keep in perfect peace
    those whose minds are steadfast,
    because they trust in you.
⁴ Trust in the Lord forever,
    for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal.
⁵ He humbles those who dwell on high,
    he lays the lofty city low;
he levels it to the ground
    and casts it down to the dust.
⁶ Feet trample it down—
    the feet of the oppressed,
    the footsteps of the poor.

⁷ The path of the righteous is level;
    you, the Upright One, make the way of the righteous smooth.
⁸ Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws,^[a]
    we wait for you;
your name and renown
    are the desire of our hearts.
⁹ My soul yearns for you in the night;
    in the morning my spirit longs for you.
When your judgments come upon the earth,
    the people of the world learn righteousness.

Isaiah 26: 1-9

In Psalms, we see how we yearn for Him:

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.  When can I go and meet with God? Psalm 42:1-2

My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Psalm 84:2

Is it any wonder that we are fascinated with the idea of a superhero? Our souls know we need Him.

My heart breaks for the family of Jacob Hall, but I’m so glad that he had a savior superhero to bend down and scoop him up in His loving arms and say, “You are safe. You are loved. I am here.”

Never fear, Jesus is always here.