7.9.18

"For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them."  (2 Cor 5.14-15, NRSV)

We are to be rooted in Christ's love. The gospel needs to be the foundational bedrock of our lives. We are to live not for ourselves but for Christ. In this vein no part of life should not be touched, shaped, or changed by the gospel. The Bible teaches that Christ isn't just in the business of canceling debts; he's in the business of reconciling the whole world to himself--and all Christians are 'ministers of reconciliation' rooted in the gospel. We are tasked with being God's co-workers in His work of reconciling all things to Himself.

We live in the Digital Age, and it shows no signs of slowing down. We live in a culture that revolves around social media. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram: all of these are centered on cultivating an image that proves to the world that we have it all together. We post our highlight reels on social media, but we make sure no one knows about those things that aren't marketable, and we sure as hell make sure no one knows about our sins and weaknesses. No one posts about the fight they had with their wife, or the way they lost their temper on their children, or how they're skating by at work and hoping no one notices. Social Media isn't about vulnerability; it's about pretending. It's pretending to be someone you're not and hoping everyone buys it (usually we do, because we're not so great at critical thinking). We who are in Christ are to be ministers of reconciliation, and Social Media can often be a barrier to fulfilling the task to which God has appointed us. 

If we are to take seriously our call to be ministers of reconciliation, then we must be honest with ourselves. We must be honest with our brokenness. We must be honest about how we deny guilt or pass blame. We must admit that whatever broken relationship we're a part of, we're a part of it; we're not innocent bystanders but participants. We must be honest about how we project our dysfunction on others so that we don't have to feel guilt; denying guilt and passing blame is, ultimately, an act of self-preservation. We project our emotional problems on others; we live out of the hurt we've experienced and share it with others. 

To begin moving forward in our task of working with God to reconcile the world to Himself, we must be honest about our emotional hazards, our dysfunctions, our brokenness. We need to seek out (with much wisdom) a friend with whom we can be honest and a friend who can be honest with us, speaking much-needed painful truth into our lives. And, perhaps most importantly, we need to practice vulnerability, whereby we take down the images we create and show ourselves as we are to the world. Everyone who cultivates an image on Social Media is hiding things out of guilt and shame; by being open and vulnerable, we are telling them that it's OK to be messed up, that they're not alone, and we open doors in which we can share the gospel about a God who knows we're messed up, who loves us anyway, and who is eager to save us knowing full-well that we'll never have it all together this side of heaven.