Loading...I took a break from reading posts on Facebook for a couple of weeks in August. This was a big change and challenge for me (it was my birthday!). I tend to go there for a variety of reasons. But I realized that I was taking a lot of time watching reels and reading news and opinions that were teaching me, but some were causing me more harm than good.
Returning to the platform, I have found I don’t really want to get mired in the posts that perpetuate angst and frustration. I’m tired of feeling so uneasy about the world, even though I want to have some idea of what is going on and to know how others are responding. The introduction of AI generated videos makes it hard to know fact from fiction.
I’ve been thankful for the preachers, the therapists and other physicians, the people there who are reminding me that God is with us, with me, through all of it. God recognizes our (my) humanity, our (my) flaws, our (my) mistakes, our (my) mishaps, and loves us (me, too) through it all.
Scripture is full of stories of flawed, imperfect people striving to do the right thing, but who often fail, miserably, along the way. Scripture is also full of a God who, especially through Jesus, continually reminds us of our value, our purpose, our belovedness, even and especially despite our humanity. Their desire for us is to recognize that who we are is loved for who we are and all that we are becoming.
We are LOVED.
Changing the algorithms and the boundaries on the ways I use social media are helping me find inner peace again. They are helping me experience God a little differently. They are opening me to some positive, affirming thoughts that have been hijacked along the way.
The old saying, “You are what you eat,” can be true about the information we ingest. I’m trying to make different choices, not eliminating news and commentary about the news completely, but rather to help me focus on what is going well, how people are generally trying to help one another, and how people are experiencing God in their midst.
Because we are all flawed, imperfect, bent … AND loved beyond measure.
~Rev. Debbie+
P.S. If you are interested in any of the people/pages I’m following, they include: Rev. Joseph Yoo and St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, El Cajon, CA; others enjoy following Episcopalians on Facebook.
Authors I value include; Retired Alaska Bishop Stephen Charleston; Louisiana Bishop Jake Owensby; Barbara Brown Taylor; and many, many more.
And for daily political recaps I read historian, Heather Cox Richardson.
