Conversation with an Angry Man

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People are shorter on patience and quicker to resentment and anger to the point of retaliation. The post on a public Facebook group was just that: an angry man who resented someone for parking crookedly and wanted to zip tie a shopping cart to their door.

He compared it to causes such as women’s rights or civil rights. It wasn’t a joke. His language and overall attitude were serious. Most people would have ignored the post (or reported him to the police), but I used social media to try to bridge the gap and find out what was really wrong. Instead of using social media to be negative, I tried to be compassionate. This is what social networking should resemble.

Businesses, non-profits, and even churches use social networking mostly as a way to market their brand or vision. As a writer, I (and others) recognized how short-sighted Christians were in this field. When our focus is only on the brand, we forget the people.

In a business article recently, I read about how customers want a relationship with the business through social networking. The catch phrase is, relationship. As Christians, we have a large presence online, but its overall impression is that each church or non-profit is separate and competing rather than an impression of unity in Christ.

I know what goes on behind the scenes. There’s more unity than most people understand. People believe impressions. That’s why reputations online are shredded in minutes when a video goes viral that doesn’t tell the whole story. Or when people bad mouth their church, it joins with other voices bad mouthing church, creating another impression.

How we respond online makes a difference, but not everyone will be satisfied. Even if you are polite and kind, non-believers still think Christians are “yes” people. Love means something different to the secular group. If we don’t give in to everything, we aren’t “loving” enough.

Most people wouldn’t do, out of love, what Jesus did for us. He knew when to turn the cheek and when to speak the truth. God help us as we navigate this world.

My only regret in the above mentioned conversation is that the post was quickly deleted. I had hoped the angry man would have seen my request for him to email me. Maybe we could have gone deeper into what was really wrong.

Social Media Tip: Look for a Facebook group for your town or city or neighborhood. Join it. It’s the modern version of neighborhood get-togethers.

Ideas That Percolate

The only sound is the ticking of the clock in the stretch of the long afternoon. My mind is busy, churning like it does, while I do these other tasks. Some ideas get written down for later when I am full time. Others are implemented now. It’s always a tug of war between balancing work, family, and ministry (not necessarily in that order).

Right now I am working on two new services for my websites. I am agonizing over catchy names, vision, and wording. Will people worry that I am taking on too much and invalidate the work I am doing? People always worry. The thing to remember in all of this is how God didn’t make a porcelain doll when He knit me in my mother’s womb.

He made a warrior.

I am an adult. I know how to say no and when to put something aside for later. Like my social media profile on RenRen; it takes far longer to operate than my other social media platforms. So it was put aside for when I am full time. I stepped down from my third job to make room for what God has set before me.

My mind races and it doesn’t see obstacles. It sees only possibilities. Today I have lots of small things to do, like letters to write, websites to update, and tomorrow I hope to get some of the even more tedious things, like updating spreadsheets, done. I can’t be creative all of the time. Every creative project always has the tedious, mundane things that are necessary.

Hopefully tonight I can get some research done.