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30th July 2024
TuesdayReflection
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Anita Wing Lee shares
connecting to the Faith community.
"How I Talk About God On Social Media"
and Sound Like a Normal Human
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"Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature,"
.... Mark 16:15 (NKJV)
Technology allows us to reach even the most distant corners of the world.
This year more people than ever gave up social media for Lent.
Social media even beat alcohol, which held the #1 spot on "things to give up for lent" for many years.
What does this say about what social media has done to us?
There was a time when my friends expected me to keep up with their social media.
Lately, I've had several friends tell me, "I don't use social media. I only use it for getting inspiration, but I never post anything."
As someone who's spent the last six years figuring out how to use social media meaningfully, here's how I figured out what exactly God wanted me to do with my accounts.
My own online journey was ignited by a deep personal motivation to create positive messages in the world.
I was dissatisfied with what mainstream media offered me - it felt superficial - and I wanted to produce something that would uplift others, instead of promoting consumerism.
It wasn't until a year ago that I felt called to use social media to share my faith.
At first, I wondered, almost in horror, "Am I supposed to be a Christian evangelist?
I wasn't sure how my audience would take a 180-degree shift to the Christian faith.
I knew if I did it wrong, that I'd be up against people's assumptions about religion.
If I did it right, people would be intrigued and encouraged by the sense of hope that comes with faith.
With 70,000 subscribers and followers circling in my sphere, the stakes were high.
Every single person mattered to God and I didn't want to screw this up.
Rather than trying to sort out my faith in the public eye, I took a long break from social media.
During this time offline, I reread my Bible from page one and was shocked by new revelations.
God is a communicating God.
He always speaking to His people!
God wants to communicate with us!
Surely, if God is moving in this day and age, He would be using the Internet.
Surely, if Jesus were alive (in the flesh) today, He would be tweeting.
He would still use stories and parables, images and metaphors to speak into the hearts of humanity.
He would be commissioning his disciples to go and spread the good news, including online.
After months of bringing my questions to God, I felt Him tell me,
"Don't try to be a 'cookie-cutter' Christian.
You don't need to plaster Bible verses to convert people.
Just speak honestly.
Love people. Be a friend to people.
Let the Gospel be expressed through your life."
As a social media creator, I consider myself a psalmist.
My posts are my psalms.
I've learned to write with God, not just for God.
There are times that I am so full of joy and thanksgiving, that my writing is an outburst of praise to God.
Of course, there are times when I wrestle with difficult questions.
When we look at the psalms, they cover every human emotion.
People asked God loudly and irreverently,
"Where are you?! Why aren't you saving us?!"
There are psalms that question God, challenge God and praise God, but ultimately, they all direct our human experience heavenward.
Pouring our hearts out to God is an ancient faith practice and one that brings us closer to God.
This is my way of "preaching" the Gospel.
I let people in on my ongoing dialogues with God.
As I work my faith out (Philippians 2:12), I'm not afraid to tell people about my faith journey.
I always remind myself I only have an audience of one.
Only God's opinion and approval matters.
I don't have to be perfect.
I can publicly admit that I don't have all the answers. God does.
My job is to lean into what God asks of me and let him take care of the results.
I trust that as I do my part, God will do His part to draw people's hearts to Him.
Maybe God made social media so that we would stop trying to be perfect.
We can trust that if we offer our lives to Him, He can take our messes and use them to point more people to Him.
And sharing that vulnerability is about as normal as a human can get.
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This is an edited version.
The full article is avaiable on request
Faith Strong Today
is all about honest conversations exploring Christianity and culture.
We provide original content to encourage, enlighten and engage your everyday life.
Anita Wing Lee
A media host, director, producer, digital strategist, innovator, writer and speaker, Anita lives out God's dream for her through multi-platform storytelling and connecting to the Faith Strong Today community.
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