johnragsdale.com + johnragsdaleblog.com

it is amazing how social media
has changed our culture

remember when facebook was just a fad for those college kids
and twitter was trivial

i remember when newscasters snickered when they used the word tweet
now they list their twitter username in the onscreen graphics

social media has allowed us to do many things
that we are not brave enough to do in person
[this is another post in itself]

here is one for today…
social media gives us the opportunity to pick our friends

we can use our discretion on who we follow
we get to choose who we listen to
folks must have our permission to be our friend
and we can un-friend
and unfollow anybody we want…

when i first started tweeting
i followed everyone
twitter was the greatest thing
and i loved everybody

then i got tired
and twitter got a bit old
i started using a more discretion

i began to do monthly clean out
un-following folks
people that i did not really want or need to follow

there were some that i un-followed
because i realized that they were not who i thought they were

you know what i mean…
folks that end up not being as funny as we thought they were
those that are too serious
those that are never serious

the ones that only promote their product

the constant braggers [yes even the #humblebrag]
how about the cat that gives constant WORKOUT UPDATES
then you have the continuous complainer
those that only tweet the great stuff happening in their life
and some that just tweet too often

or how about this one…
the fella that doesn’t do his own tweeting
i unfollow these folks as soon as i find out
i don’t want to hear what their publicist has to say
i want to hear them

in other words
we unfollow folks when they prove to be something
or someone different then we thought they were

this doesn’t apply only to social media

think about it
when folks first come to Jesus
He is all they can talk about
they love Him
and His church

then church inevitably does something to disappoint them
and they click unfollow
church gets blocked
hidden
un-friended

and if church continues this trend
they will finally unfollow Jesus
and Jesus never did anything to hurt them

here’s the deal
we connect to church
knowing full well that church is made up of people
and people are imperfect
yet we are shocked when they do not live up to our expectations

disappointment leads to un-following

well…
why not use the same logic with everything else

i cannot count the times
that onions have ended up on my burger
when i specifically asked them for them to be left off
but i still eat burgers

we have taken so many things back to target
that the lady at customer service knows us all by name
but i keep buying stuff there

starbucks has messed up my order many times
but you better believe that i still drink coffee

we give everything else multiple chances
but for some reason
we hold church to another standard

if we get hurt or disappointed
when the church does not fully represent Jesus
we click unfollow
or unfriend

here is a thought to consider for 2012
what if we gave church
and the people of the church
as many chances as we do everything else

i can promise you
the benefit will far out way
a latte

and who knows
we might actually end up following Jesus