Anyone who has ever met me or knows me well knows that I truly love social media. I sincerely love capturing a moment, finding a way to tie to the goodness of God and sharing it with whoever will stop long enough to read it. I believe in the positive powers of social media when it comes to getting a message out to the masses. I believe in the power of social media to help connect family and friends worldwide. I also love the news outlets on social media. Social media news outlets always share snippets that summarize a story, it fits perfectly into my schedule. No one has time to sit and watch a whole episode of the news. Personally, I’ve always tried to share a balance of content that includes positive things as well as not so positive things that happen to me and my family. I’m known for sharing personal calamities that will hopefully make others feel normal about what they’re going through or offer a small nugget of wisdom gained through years of mistakes.
It is truly my personal brand. I fail. I then share the results and find the silver lining in hopes to never do it again.
Being on social media as much as I am, I have also learned the skill of scrolling past things that offend me or scare me. I scroll so quickly that the content doesn’t have time set up camp in my soul. I have motley crew of social media friends on both sides of the aisles, all ages and all races and nationalities. I have many social media friends with very religious beliefs or some with no religious beliefs at all. I have friends who hate the little town that we live in and I have friends who love the little town that we live in and want to see it thrive. But typically, whatever the case, I have no problem scrolling past anything that will darken my day, dampen my spirit or steal my joy.
Admittingly, sometimes I have to take breaks from social media because I spend too much time presence of scrolling mindlessly while looking for my next laugh or recipe. Too much a good thing can be a bad thing for me.
One of my favorite social media posts are the posts with a positive outcome. This past week our entire small community smiled on social media because a stolen bike was returned to a sweet elderly man who never bothered a soul. On this day we saw the absolute best that social media had to offer.
As the events of this past week began to unfold, that would be the last happy moment I would witness on social media as I know it. This week has truly left me with no words and a heart that is heavily yearning for the Lord to hurry and rescue us from this sad world that we live in.
Some things our eyes are just not meant to see on a replay reel. Our souls were not created by God to watch someone lose their life, watch people cheer over it and scroll on to the next trendy dance on Tik Tik without feeling anything. Both of my daughters shared with me that they watched the video of the Ukrainian refugee girl lose her life on a bus in North Carolina while no one tried to help her. I tried to explain to both of them that it was not normal and how up until a few years ago the media outlets would “blur out” the inappropriate images while warning you. They rarely do that any more. There is such a deep and disturbing craving to see all of the gruesome details on demand.
Lord, may I never become so desensitized and cold hearted where I think it’s okay that a young father of two get gunned down while he is sharing his beliefs at an event where his wife and children are. May my heart never get so hard that I feel nothing when a young refugee girl is murdered on a bus before her life truly even starts. May never be so cruel to wonder if she is here illegally or completed the proper paperwork. May I never get used to seeing defenseless school students run for their lives and talk to news correspondents about how scared they were during a school shooting. May I never turn a blind eye or ear to colleges being locked down because of horrendous threats to the student body. Our souls were not created to continuously handle this much darkness.
The events of this week have sent me running to seek shelter with our Savior and clinging to the eternal hope we have in him. This week has made me seek refuge within the pages of the Word of God more than ever before. This week has reminded me that our home is not here on this earth but in heaven. This week has reminded me that our country needs prayer, unity, revival, forgiveness and spiritual help. We are living in days where crisis after crisis is available at our finger tips to relive as many times as we want to. Even with all of this being said, there is hope in a relationship with the Lord. I invite you to seek refuge in him. Get a Bible, or open your Bible again. Pray for our country. Find a church this Sunday. Lay your cares at the feet of a savior who is waiting on you. We need him more than ever.
“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honest, whatever is just, whatever is honorable, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about those things.”
Philippians 4:8
Reba Phelps jreba.phelps@gmail.com