It’s hard enough to be a witness in the real world, but with the creation of a digital world online, many of us find ourselves having to manage our Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter avatars as they ping on screens all over the planet. These little pixilated offspring of our ego can be a real handful at times; running free from their leash, biting people, rummaging through the neighbors trash, peeing on every mailbox and pooping on every lawn. Too often, our online presence hurts our real-life witness. Should we delete these little avatars of ours or can they be redeemed as agents of salvation in the social media mission field?
In Paul Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, the young protagonist Christian finds himself passing through Vanity Fair on the way to the Celestial City. This was a marketplace town of sorts where all sorts of merchandise was sold and spectacles kept on display. Every booth, table, kiosk, and shop appealed to the lust, greed, pride, and arrogance of the shoppers. There were honors for sale, bawds to gawk at, jugglers to jeer, and glittery trinkets to adorn every puffed out chest. It was a soulless and miserable town and the pilgrim Christian was clearly out of place. As the merchants and consumers began to pressure Christian to join in the revelry and weigh out silver and gold for worthless things, he plugs his ears and cries out, “Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity” (Psalm 119:37). When pressed to find out what things he might be interested in, he declares “I buy truth.” For those of you who’ve read the tale, you know that Christian was imprisoned for all this and had to make an impassioned plea for his soul. While Vanity Fair was not changed by any of this, there were a few who were impacted by Christian’s witness and even one abandoned his shop to join the pilgrimage. Reading through this section of Bunyan’s allegory, I really fellowshipped with Christian’s strolling through Vanity Fair in all my scrolling through Facebook. It seems a hard place for me to be a witness and to also keep my witness and yet there it is along the pathway; a town we are called to pass through and impact. How Christians should use and interact with social media is an overdue topic for conversation and consideration. Please take a moment to read the short blog post attached and come prepared to join the discussion this Sunday morning at 8:30 upstairs in the Family Life Center. We’ll have the coffee on and a treat out waiting for you!
