Watch out!

“Watch out! Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven. When you give to someone in need, don’t do as the hypocrites do—blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity! I tell you the truth, they have received all the reward they will ever get. But when you give to someone in need, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you." - Matthew 6:1-4

The modern day version of blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets is blasting about it on Facebook and other social media, disguised by words such as, "I'm so blessed to get to serve/give..." "I'm so humbled by the opportunity to serve/give..." "I get to serve/give today and all the glory goes to God!"

LOOK HOW GREAT I AM! LOOK HOW MUCH I DO FOR GOD! LOOK HOW GIVING I AM!

Listen, I get that it's a struggle. I get that you are excited about it. I love taking pictures, so I want to take pictures of what I love and what is going on around me, but at the same time I don't want to be that person who takes pictures of things to say, "Look at me serving! Look at me doing these good things! Look at me being helpful!" I'm not saying everybody who does that doesn't give and serve with a genuine heart or reasoning behind it, but it’s exactly what those verses in Matthew are talking about. They are done publicly, and not just in front of the people you’re serving, which is one thing, but in front of your hundreds of Facebook “friends.”

And maybe I’m overly frustrated because I’m on Facebook a lot, and it’s all over Facebook. Maybe I’m frustrated because we don’t address it enough or keep each other accountable enough in this area. And if by chance we bring it up, we’re afraid of offending someone. The last time I told someone their Facebook stuff was inappropriate or questionable, guess how that went down? Not well. So it’s been a long time. Because we don’t want to be hypocrites or judgmental or point out a speck in somebody’s eye when we have a log in our own but for crying out loud, we’ve got to be the ones who keep each other accountable or no one ever will! Can you imagine standing in heaven when God says, “Well, you lost most of your rewards in heaven because you were really showy on Facebook, and none of your friends were willing to confront you about it.” Now I don’t know what the rewards in heaven are, but they’re made to be a big deal in the bible. So, I’m going to assume that it is. I feel like staying off Facebook all together would do a lot of people a lot of good. Not just in this area, but in jealousy, in anxiety, fear, worry, anger, doubt… There’s a whole myriad of emotions that facebook drags to the surface of our hearts that don’t even belong there.

Let’s just call it as it is – Facebook is often a sin. It can be a stumbling block. It’s where we flaunt our pride. It’s where we rely on what we see from other people’s posts instead of what God is telling us.

This post isn’t just about the evils of Facebook, because we’ve all read a million of those articles, but it is really about the fact that sometimes people are so quick to call attention to themselves in the ways that Matthew says to watch out for… and we aren’t watching out for it. We aren’t watching out for ourselves, nor are we watching out for our friends. Not as a whole – some people never post on Facebook, some people post things that are just basic or funny or actually giving glory to God on Facebook. I’m not giving a sweeping statement here to everybody ever. It’s just something I see and that bothers me. And a reminder to myself that I do not want to do that or be that or ever become that. May God send people into my life to be bold enough to tell me if I am leaning that way or becoming too showy.