How many of you have heard one of your friends say, "I am deleting my facebook."? How many of you have had friends delete their facebook?
How many of you have seen those same friends come back time and time again?
If you are like me or have friends like mine all of these things have happened. I have seen friends delete and undelete their facebook over and over again. Every time I hear someone is deleting it I casually say, "You'll be back" and I have yet to be wrong. They always come back.
A couple of times I've asked various defectors why they were deleting their facebook and usually the answers look something like this: I spend too much time on it. It's a huge waste of my time. I don't want people to know what I am doing all the time. I feel like God is telling me to give it up. I want real relationship, not the fake world of facebook.
There are a ton of other reasons but they usually look something like that.
To the people who are wasting too much time:
Stop. One of the fruits of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) is self-control. If we are really living through the spirit that God gave us shouldn't we be able to practice self-control and know when enough is enough, and by giving it up are we really showing that we have self-control? My guess is that when you give up your facebook because it's a waste of time you start doing something else more. It's not a cure to the problem of wasting time it's just displacing the problem onto something else. The problem is that we've decided that we can't control the amount of time we spend doing something and that's pathetic. Whether it's facebook, watching tv or eating we've decided to tell God that even though we have his spirit we can only use it on loving others but not on self-control.
To the people who don't want others to know what they are doing all the time:
Stop posting what you are doing all the time!
To the people who believe that God has told you to give up facebook or that it's not real:
Jesus lived on earth. He walked, talked and ate. He taught, laughed and lived his life in the community around him, with his friends, strangers and enemies. He didn't run from them or give them up because they were annoying. He lived with them daily.
I work from home and spend most of the time with my beautiful wife Brooke in our office. I don't get to see a lot of people during the week but community isn't just Sunday and Wednesday night church. Facebook is becoming our community - a place where we can talk with people, see peoples lives, ask for prayer, get encouraged, laugh, cry and live life together. By giving up your facebook you aren't living a more real life, I would argue the opposite. I would say you are missing out on another way to connect with people and be with people to show them the love of Christ.
There wasn't a lot of technology when Jesus walked the earth but I know he wasn't against it. He used a boat and donkey to travel when he didn't feel like walking on water or flying - both would be considered technology of the day. I am sure that if megaphones existed he probably would have used one so more people could have heard his life-giving words. His #1 fan Paul used letter writing technology of the day to spread the word and I am guessing that Paul only dreamed and hoped that he could reach people instantly and in such volume as the internt has provided.
So my challenge to you is to stop deleting your facebook or complaining about it and start using it for good and noble things. Make a plan, be purposeful with what you post and stop complaining about everything in your statuses. If you want to represent Christ to people who may not know him you better believe that they are aware of your facebook posts. Stop acting like it's not a real part of life and start treating it like Jesus treated the community he lived in.