While our three sons were living under our roof there were five words that struck fear in their hearts. “Time for a family conference”. I suspect they felt I was being punitive when I called for a conference. The truth is I was pursuing protective love and not punishment. Protective love sees a dynamic that is hurting someone in the family and when one in the family is hurting all of us are hurting. When I see the current dynamics of my universal Christian family I wish I could call a Jesus family conference with a heart of protective love. I see social media posts from friends who identify with Jesus that question the faith of those who disagree with them on social or political issues. That action dims the light of our witness for Christ and gives non-believers ammunition to dismiss our testimony. I recently read a social media comment about a person who posted something that they disagreed
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Social media is depressing. After a taking a recent sanity exit from Twitter a song from my (much) younger days triggered the musing for this week. The song Easy to be Hard was written for the musical Hair but it became a big hit as a cover for Three Dog Night. The lyrics could have been written today about the disappointing interactions on Twitter, Facebook and other platforms. How can people be so heartlessHow can people be so cruelEasy to be hardEasy to be cold. I could sing those lyrics almost anytime I cruise through the comments section on Twitter. The dialogue is often mean, unforgiving, and disheartening. I get particularly distressed when people of faith descend to that level of discourse. People who have proudly labeled themselves in their bio as followers of Jesus use language on social media that once would have made a sailor blush. Regular readers of my musings know I am not a purveyor of
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