You know those posts that talk about Jesus and then attempt to shame us into sharing? They are the ones that talk about how we share jokes every day but when something talks about Jesus, we just scroll on by.
Never mind they might be a repeat of an email we were forwarding to all our friends twenty years ago, the shaming is ridiculous. As if Jesus would only be convinced of our love for Him when we hit share on a social media post. But...
There’s something they get right.
What Will We Hate on this Week?
I was thinking about this the other day when I had a Nickelback song stuck in my head. (That’s right, I said it.) Everyone loves to hate on Nickelback, saying all their songs sound the same. That might be true. But if you like that one Nickelback song, then you’ll enjoy all of them.
The thing is Nickelback is the band everyone loves to hate...right now. But twenty years ago it was someone else. And isn’t there always a recent boy band to hate on while teenage girls lose their minds?
All I’m saying, so far, is that the things we tend to hate, en masse, fade away.
So What is This Really About?
I’m related news, I’ve noticed a trend for Christians on social media. We love to dog pile the latest celebrity misdeed, political snafu, or error in some preacher’s thinking. Someone said something to offend us recently, right? Of course they did!
But who remembers what we were arguing about last month, last year, or last decade? The wolves in sheep’s clothing didn’t just arrive this year, or last year, or even with the rise of social media.
We have this habit of arguing over every little detail, something it seems Jesus told the religious leaders of His day that they shouldn’t be doing. Speaking of a group of people we Christians all love to hate on, have we been careful to ensure we haven’t become them?
Because to scroll through social media, something I don’t think we should get rid of, usually means to run across Christians arguing with other Christians about whether a praise song is praiseworthy. Or if a Christian writer has even read the Bible. Or if a celebrity has actually experienced salvation.
I’m not saying there does not exist a right and a wrong in all the details of life. But when did we become the gatekeepers on every jot and tittle? Yes, conviction of sin is needed, but when did we become the convictors?
What Do We Win?
Was there a mention of a prize I missed, where we could win just by raging against everything? What did we gain by using all our words against something?
What if the thing Christians are supposed to be known for wasn’t striking down every wrong thing but rather proclaiming what is good?
King David said to “taste and see that the Lord is good.” Sure, David raged against sin, but wasn’t most of that righteous anger pointed at God, asking why He wasn’t doing anything about it? When did we decide to take up that mantle and make sure everyone knew everything they were doing wrong?
What Are We Catching?
I was going to remind us of the old proverb that more flies are caught with honey than with vinegar. The point of the saying is that we can get more accomplished with kindness than with harshness.
But a quick Google search reveals that flies are actually attracted to the vinegar, because it smells like rotting fruit to them. They get caught in the honey, but that messes up the saying entirely, doesn’t it, Grandpa?
Maybe we should remember that more is caught than taught, which is why most parents have an embarrassing story to share about their toddlers repeating something they said, not necessarily what we taught them.
So maybe those sugary-sweet, sickening posts that simply proclaim God’s love for people should be passed around a lot more often than the latest debate.
Just maybe, you should pass this along to ten of your friends so you will experience blessing in the next hour. As long as you keep in mind that the blessing is simply a by-product of passing along something that is encouraging, rather than spreading around an argument.
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