#Jesus is Not Just a Social Media Status

Most of us use social media to keep in touch with friends, family members, and passing acquaintances; some of us might even have hundreds of ‘friends’ we don’t even really know. Thinking about your friends’ list on something like Facebook, how many of those people do you honestly, really know? When you scroll through your news feed or status updates, do you get to peer into people’s souls, or are we just looking through a small painted window pane that blocks the view of the true brokenness within?

Just as we do with social media, so often we do with God. We post a status update that we went and saw a really good movie, had a great workout at the gym, or just ate a whole box of girl scout cookies (#noshame). And we do the same with Jesus. We ‘check in’ to church on Sunday, we might have a temporary high, and we share a cool ‘status update’. Then Monday comes, and we forget all about the last post and share an update with how we woke up late and on the way in a jerk in a Mercedes cut us off and made us hit a red light, which ultimately led us to have to park and walk an extra five minutes in to the office. And so, with a passing whim, Jesus comes up here and there, and then he’s gone again when ‘real life’ gets in the way.

Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

We need to move Jesus from a status update or online acquaintance to a real life, side-by-side, close and personal kind of relationship – the kind that isn’t blind to the true brokenness that fills our lives. The way that we move Jesus from something distant and unreal to something close and meaningful is by worshipping him daily through prayer, scripture, and personal time.

We devote so much of our time to worldly things – things that ultimately will fail us. Why do we worship the things that will fail us, yet ignore the one holding out his hand who’s already given everything, promising us eternal hope, love, and peace?

“Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you. – Isaiah 54:10

Stop being passive. Don’t let the world win, let love win! Unplug from passing on fake news and start living a real-life side by side with the one who loves you more than you know, and who sings of a worth that outshines the brilliance of the sun. The creator of the universe made you perfectly in his eyes, and he wants to have a personal relationship with you. All you have to do is let him…