Have you ever wanted God to smite someone? After reading the news every morning, I desperately want to ask God to express some holy wrath. Even better, He could delegate it to me! I think the world would benefit from some carefully targeted smiting, and I know just who to aim at.
Too bad God doesn’t agree with me.
Lately, I’ve noticed that there’s a whole lot of public shaming going on. It doesn’t even need to be for a egregious sin.
For instance, I was reading a Facebook post where someone bragged that they hung all their laundry on a clothesline, and couldn’t understand why any sane person would use a clothes dryer. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with hanging your clothes out to dry. But it was the attitude, one of “do what I do or you are a terrible person” that bothered me. The implication was that she was superior to us lesser mortals who use clothes dryers, and we should change to imitate her.
Sometimes I think that King Solomon must have been familiar with Facebook. I’ve been reading through Proverbs. Solomon may have written down his wisdom thousands of years ago, but it’s anything but out of date. In fact, some proverbs apply more now than ever before.
Which is more important—social media or an actual person standing in front of you?
Most of us would agree—at least most of the time, the physical presence of a person trumps catching up on Facebook or Twitter, answering texts or phone calls. Sure, my best friend understands that if we’re chatting and my husband calls, I’ll probably take the call. And I’ll tell Pete that I’m in the middle of a conversation—is this important or can it wait a bit? On the other hand, if my friend is confiding about something serious and important to her (and me), I might not answer the call. There are no hard and fast rules, but there is courtesy.
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