I read a few things lately that I thought were helpful or interesting and wanted to comment on:

Social media rewards angry mobs rather than grace

TGC points out how social media algorithms spread anger far faster than grace, and notes, “Encouraging tweet threads aren’t shared as much as angry ones”. This makes a bunch of great points, and quite a few good quotes. Do read the whole thing! It also has practical ideas for Christians as to how we may be able to use social media for good and encouragement. This is something I got wrong when I blogged some years back; I found it was easy to get attention by pointing out problems and errors, and I did quite a bit of it, but now I’m much more aligned with this article.

One particular pet peeve in this area is the oversimplified memes I so often see on social media. I have friends all over the political and religious spectrum, and I see memes which are offensive from all sides. Usually, these simplify an issue so far that they make it look like anyone who disagrees must be an idiot. Is this grace? Do we want those who agree with us to join with us in laughing at those who disagree? Jesus calls us to love even our enemies – which means to dedicate ourselves to their good – and I suspect this means that mocking their “stupidity” is inappropriate.

Relatedly, I find in general that it’s far easier to point out problems than to propose solutions. However, pointing out problems can get awfully close to complaining; the real challenge is to pray, to find solutions, and to be part of the solution.

Marriage can’t cure loneliness

It’s easy to be lonely. And it’s easy to find ways to try and fill that loneliness through others. While we definitely need social connections and we need one another, Christians are called to find our ultimate satisfaction in Christ, and he’s the only one who can truly fill our emptiness. This article, on how marriage doesn’t solve our problems with loneliness is a good reminder of that.

Personality tests don’t excuse sin

Apparently, personality tests (like Myers-Briggs or Enneagrams) are a big thing these days, and they can help us understand ourselves and others in some ways. But, some of my church leaders have pointed out recently how these shouldn’t be used to excuse sin. Now TGC has a post on the same idea. The key idea is this: As Christians, Scripture has to be our guide for how we live and how we relate to one another. As an introvert, I’m not thereby excused from relating to others in church and working live out the “one another” commands the Bible gives. And neither is an extrovert excused from personal, private devotions because interacting with people is so energizing. These tests then may be helpful in telling us where we are likely to struggle and need growth, but we’re called to follow Christ, not our personality type.

Tech can get in our way

For all the advances of modern technology, technology can get in our way and be a huge distraction, too. It can kill our focus. This doesn’t really propose any concrete solutions, but it’s a good reminder. I deal with this myself in part by turning off most notifications most of the time, except for things I truly think are important enough that they should be able to interrupt me.

Retirement stewardship in financial turmoil

Via Challies, this is a helpful article on financial stewardship during market turmoil, from a Christian perspective.