Facebook and Twitter have obviously become somewhat idolatrous. What I mean is that they’ve replaced not only God as our source of affirmation, but even other real human beings as a source of affirmation. There is a caution we must all face here. Yet, as a friend of mine said the other week, we shouldn’t throw out the baby with the bath-water.
What to do?
First, we must recognize that a collective group of cyberspace friends is no substitute for God. It is no substitute for real human beings, on that matter. What I mean is that I can post a million status updates, receive a million comments of affirmation, but just like salt-water, I’ll remain thirsty, no matter how much I drink or how many updates I post.
Second, we must recognize that the need to be affirmed is a deep need* of ours that God has created in the first place. Not only that, but He provides lots of ways (yes, even Facebook and Twitter) in order to get that affirmation. However, there is a twist here which is small, but very important.
When I post a status update on Facebook, it usually comes from deep, down and inside somewhere in my heart. It might just be what I did that day, but it is important. It might be funny or profound, serious or mundane. In the end, however, it represents me and “me” needs to be affirmed.
The affirmation, however, can’t come from the Facebook collective or the Twitter collective. It must come from God, since as stated earlier, the collective is just like salt-water which never satisfies. Therefore, when I post status updates on Facebook, I try to keep one thing in mind: I’m posting the update primarily for God and all the angels--maybe even the part of humanity who is already in heaven. You see, they’re the ones who are most interested in my life in the first place. God is my advocate. His angels are also my advocates. Those who have already died and gone to heaven are without sin and therefore would have the self-less desire to read my status updates in the first place.
God and the heavenly hosts are the ones who are most interested in our status updates, even more than our friends on Facebook. Figuratively, they might be re-tweeting our messages to each other or having water cooler conversations about us. Jesus might have you and I on some 4D video screen with the remote control and gathering angels around to replay portions of our lives for them. “Check out so-in-so, Gabriel. Isn’t that awesome, what just happened?! He's learning more and more that I fought and died for him!” Or, maybe it's more on the funny side, Jesus says, "Holy smokes guys. I can't believe he just ran into that glass-door without seeing it. Let's rewind that part!" Maybe a couple hundred angels are rolling. He’s showing us off. In reality, He’s actually showing Himself off, since He created us in the first place.
God is the one who is most interested in our status updates. He’s writing comments all over your Facebook profile in heaven. Angels and others are writing comments too as they see our stories and how God has orchestrated all of our stories into this Grand Story which goes on for eternity.
So go ahead. Write your Facebook status updates, but don’t wait for comments from your friends, even though they're important. Know that God and the angels are all over your status updates and tweets. They already think you’re awesome. That’s why they’re looking at them in the first place.
By the way, short prayers throughout the day are the equivalent of heavenly status updates without the need to get to a computer or an iPhone. God and the angels pass along those invisible status updates and tweets even though nothing has been typed. It’s all water-cooler conversation about you and others up in heaven.**
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*I speculate that part of why we need affirmation so desperately is because when we are affirmed by another person, that person is actually worshipping God in one way or another. They’re affirming not only the person, but the one who created that person. Therefore, the person receiving the affirmation actually gets to be part of the experience of someone else’s worship through them. This is a seriously awesome transaction.
**Of course, all of the specifics is pure speculation on my part, but I hope you'll get the jist that it is God who is most interested in our status updates and tweets.
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