How would Jesus tweet? Social media as love, Part II

Missed Part I on Monday? Grab it here–and make sure to come back for the social media giveaway on Friday!

4. If social media is to love others, it’s gotta stay in its proper place. I highly value this post on 6 Ways Your Smartphone Is Changing You, in which the author asserts that our smartphones can take the place of embodiment—of simply being fully present with the real, live folks around us.

I mentioned social media is a tool–for either our own idols, or for God’s purposes. Worship is all about putting things in their proper place. Romans 1 says they worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator. Author and pastor Tim Keller points out that when we’re “disordered” like this, serving created things, they rule over us.

Grant it–I like my more disconnected life in Africa for a lot of reasons. I like that little digital connections don’t edge out longer, meaningful ones.

5. Numbers = ? As I mulled over my WordPress report last year, I loved my husband’s take on pageviews:

It’s not about numbers. These are people, and I know you know that. Think of it as hours of worship generated. If each of these people worshiped God for just a half an hour, thinking on Him and loving Him—pageviews take on a whole new significance.

So as my social-media-maven friend recently wrote me, “Don’t you dare let that number define you!” For a Christian, social media is not about self-promotion; and for all you professionals out there, as a writer, I understand on a very real level that your name is your brand.  Platform–no matter what size–is simply an opportunity to use more of what God’s given, to make His Kingdom come, His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. As Michael Hyatt writes, if Ezra built a platform to speak to God’s people and, out of false modesty, built it too short so people couldn’t hear him, it would be a shame. “Platform” is about doing the work of God in our world.

Whether you’ve got a blog on home repair or your own Pinterest projects, it’s about God-promotion. Social media is about loving people—about being an instrument of peace, healing, truth.

Because of this, I want God to be in my goals for my site, too. Yes, because I want to blog with excellence, I target two posts a week. That is for God’s honor. But if I don’t have anything to write well about, or would be throwing some fluff out there to keep those numbers hoppin’ (remember that kid party game, “Don’t let the balloon touch the floor”?)…well, usually there’s very little love in that.

I’ve written before that posts, for me, are like manna. I plan that—just as God has daily “packed my lunch” all these times before—He’ll show up and give me something to write about. (I used to be afraid of running out of stuff to say…but the more I blog on God applied to real life, the more I see that I pretty much have infinite material there.) But on the few weeks that doesn’t happen—I’ve decided I’d rather not write. Social media is my slave, my instrument–and not the other way around.

HELP US OUT! How do you keep control over your social media–and not the other way around?

Please comment below!

In celebration, c’mon back Friday for a small SOCIAL MEDIA GIVEAWAY.

Catch part III on Friday!

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