Facebook is a wonderful
way of keeping in touch with each other and providing 'community'
between ourselves and our circle of friends.
It can get news and information round very quickly, but of course as with
many things on the internet, it can be destructive rather than
constructive when it is used in an inappropriate way. This can sometimes
cause real hurt and misunderstandings, and certainly
not something that we at YF should be involved in.
It is in effect a
diary of what we are up to and perhaps how we may be feeling at that
particular time.
At YF last
week Rob read out an article that a youth leader from another church had
written and he asked the group
to take on board what was said and to have a think about what we all write
on our FB pages. Here's the article:
What We Facebook Echoes In Eternity!
Ecclesiastics 3:11
One of my favourite films of all time is "Gladiator" starring Russell
Crowe. In the opening sequence the character of the General (Crowe)
gives a call to battle, which is "What we do in this life echoes in
eternity." I believe this to be completely true; what we do with our
lives has eternal value.
Ecclesiastics 3:11 God has set eternity in the heart of man.
More than nine million people in Britain are signed up to Facebook,
Twitter and Myspace leading Europe with number of users. Sites like
these give us a huge platform to let the world know how we are feeling
and what we have been doing. It's basically a public diary of our life.
I recently read an article speculating what historians in 100 years will
make of these sites. Although there will definitely be a wealth of
knowledge to be accessed about our current culture and way of life, the
writer joked about the fact that the researchers would have to spend
millions of hours sifting through videos of cats doing silly things and
photos of drunken parties.
Christians are called to be 'in the world but not of it,' and this is
never truer than on Facebook. We need to be extra careful with what we
say on Facebook because it will live on the pages of the Internet
forever.
Forever is a very long time. Kind of like eternity.
When we give an account for our lives, how will Heaven evaluate our
Facebook status? I'm not saying that God is shallow and can't forgive
but I am asking the question - 'How costly is grace?'
Society is waking up to this and requiring people to be accountable for
things written on Facebook. On 26th February 2009 a young girl in Essex
was sacked from her job as a secretary for comments she had made on
Facebook and she is definitely not the only person to have lost her job
for that reason.
Will your next Facebook status, or next twitter be worthy of eternity,
or will it forever clog the pages of the Internet with junk! Its time we
use our digital world as an opportunity to show the goodness of God, one
friend of mine has decided to use her Facebook as a way of encouraging
her friends in their faith and to help her non-Christian friends find
direction. To me this is the best way we can use Facebook for God's
glory!
Josiah Parr
Youth Leader
CGC Chelmsford
Chelmsford