Day 86: Facebook "Friends"?

This morning my friend Amy on Facebook whom I met at "The Asylum" (a fantastic ministry to goths) at Cornerstone Festival this summer had an interesting Facebook status. It read something like this "If you don't want to be my friend in person, don't expect to be my friend on Facebook." For some reason this comment really struck a chord with me...in a good way of course. If you ever get to Cornerstone you need to go to "The Asylum" tent and look for Amy...she has a real heart for ministry. Her husband? Well.....he's a good guy as well.

What struck me about this comment is how true and profound that little statement is. I enjoy blogging and sharing my opinion because I look at Facebook strictly as a personal entertainment thing. I am not on here to play politics to climb a ladder or try to say the right things in order to please some that may be watching. I view Facebook as one of many places to be real. The trouble I find with this is people who would never normally call me and want to hang out or grab a bite to eat somewhere now want to be my friend on Facebook. When you are a pastor you will find there are sometimes spies who want to become a "friend" of yours on Facebook to simply build up an arsenal of arguments against you. This is a sick way to be.

In my case I have many friends that I have never met except on Facebook. These are people that I meet via "That's not my God" and other group pages. One can use discernment to decide if they are someone nice or not by the comments they make. I have come to discover that just because someone wants to be your friend on Facebook, it does not always mean they are truly your “friend”.

I will admit there are some people I would love to see what they are doing these days but instead I choose to block them so they cannot see me and likewise. This keeps my motives in check and then I don’t have to deal with potential hurtful moments. Facebook…a fun thing but don’t take it too seriously.