Life, Repurposed

We can repurpose even our digital communication for something that is much healthier than the norm.

1. Social media distancing. Social media doesn’t have to be our only source of digital communication. The telephone still works! Email still works. A video chat works. It doesn’t have to be all consumed from a platform that is heated and overwhelming. I have spent many days unplugged from social media in the last few months – for the sake of my mental health.
   1. You CAN snooze someone by unfollowing for a period of time, especially when it means that you can preserve your love for that person. Distancing is sometimes needed.
   2. It is ok to hold some people at arm’s length for most interaction and still show them grace and kindness when you do need to interact.
2. Reach out with kindness. You can distance from the negative without being absent from the interactions. Reach out in a message to someone (voice or type) to let them know you are thinking of them and you care.
3. There is a hunger for kindness and love. We can make a difference with our words. Post images and words that inspire, rather than instill fear. Consider how your political perspective and the intensity around it might destroy your ability to inspire people. If our words and presence are like a fire that burns people when they get to close, who is going to want to get close enough to receive the kindness. It’s like throwing a cup of water on a fire. It evaporates as soon as it hits. Your kindness evaporates when it is out of balance with the fire of a passionate point of view.
4. Self-awareness is so important:
   1. I don’t need to say every word that comes to my head.
   2. My tone is more evident to people online than I might realize. Emails and texts are HARD.
   3. Artificial kindness is also obvious to a lot of people. (Genuine love matters)
   4. We might be more gullible than we think if we only chase after news that feeds our point of view.
   5. My own opinion and how I share it might make someone else feel as if they aren’t cared for or respected.

I see social media and my profile sort of like my front porch. If I invite you to my front porch to sit down and have a conversation, I consider you a friend. We can agree to disagree. But if you start to shout at me and call me names, I will kindly invite you to step off my porch. This doesn’t mean that I have any hatred toward someone. It simply means that my front porch is a safe place and I want everyone to feel welcome. If that welcome is off balance, I have to make tough decisions about who to invite there.

On the virtual front porch, I ask that we discuss kindly, that we smile as we talk, that we pat each other on the shoulder and say we’re here for one another. We can do that virtually, too!

My goal is not to grow a circle of people who think like me and agree with me, but a circle of people who love, even with massive differences in between. I want to have a diverse circle of contacts who have a common goal: to be kind humans and to make one another better humans for knowing each other.

If you need a little social distancing, you have my permission.

But more than anything, let’s look for ways we can spur others on to love and joy, and peace. All the fruit of the Spirit: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentles, and self-control.