UNsocial Media

I confess to a long life of activism on many levels- yet and still... please read on:

You know the drill, continual obsession with anger, fear, rage, venting to the world in whatever meme, words, quotes loaded with truths or untruths or part-truths and in essence the world wide web -not to mention coffee shops all over the landscape rural and urban, are full of this stuff.

Listen, I'm a blues singer/player and spend a great deal of my time behind bars as a volunteer chaplain. I wrote a ton of lyrics and songs on a record titled "Lament". Our family experienced poverty and rejection and there was a certain "outcast" vibe I didn't grasp until I was nearly past my teen years. I'm a recovering addict. I GET pain and struggle, rejection and the essentiality of justice vs. "just US". I don't want to be muzzled and don't wish to do it to others.

Scripture calls us to "weep with those who weep" and "be angry" but also "do not let the sun go down on our wrath". Living a life of anger, fear and an undercurrent of distance from faith in God, His people, chasms between yourself and hope and love from the Risen Christ is a train wreck and frankly too much spewed up online and in convos. So how long before you realize you're being programmed, hard-wired by political (both digital and human) "bots" making money and either gaining or getting power off of your engagement even as you allow all the misery and pain to suck the life, purpose and peace out of your mind and heart?

Pay attention reader- repeating here: I'm an activist. Continual silence, passivity changes nothing when change is needed. I feel and am fully convinced from my Lord and Savior and His very Word and example that being awake, being active, praying, demonstrating, speaking and writing about injustice, oppression and horrors passed from human to human individually or in groups is all part of God's plan for my life in a sinful and fallen world.

What I work for in my own life and sanity is a balance. Regular, throughout the average day my prayers rise and God answers (even sometimes with "Wait" or "No" yet He does indeed respond!). Studying the Word of God (Bible) off and on in my average day, my own personal "normal" includes coffee, gardening, hot pepper and other food delights, excellent times with my wife, kids, grandkids, friends and fruitful ministry on several levels. I'm a musician who does not -only- write, record and do live shows in blues but in hybrids of rock, etc., and leading worship from time to time. From the start I wrote about the hurt in people and issues of poverty and injustice, still do.

Yet I've several hobbies (soccer, the REAL football), fishing, rarely these days hunting, love to camp, get into the woods, build little slide guitars, read a ton of articles on the tough and horrid issues but also so much positive stuff, so my input as well as output can hopefully be balanced and not merely despairing!

If bad news were only found in un-social media that'd be somewhat easier to navigate.

CHOOSE LIFE IN CHRIST, relationally, not merely soaking in a constant stream of negatives and regurgitation of them.

Some professing believers need to face their complicity in the savaging of poor and minority people while all need to sit beside still waters and take breaks from the brokenness fight and come up for air before they drown in the polluted ditch of despair, rage and bitterness.

Jesus knows, sees, understands and has plans for it all. Yes, some of those plans He works via you and me, but don't forget: our focus must be on Him, then others in their need. We also need a measure of self-care though not mere selfishness. But the focus on God, then others? That's the one-two punch often not seen online and elsewhere.

As always, thanks for stopping by! -Glenn