Life it is so much funness, isn’t it dear reader? If you happen to be reading this, you may not like my playful misuse of words; it may jar your sensibilities. The fact that I am writing and you may be reading, is intriguing. As writer, I have absolutely no guarantee that you, or anyone else, will start, stop, or even consider reading a single word I type and publish. I would be self deluding to believe that say, thirty-one thousand plus people, not only viewed my written messages, but also, read them, in a matter of four and a half short days.
Here is what I am driving at:
Last year on my birthday I wrote and published a blog entitled Seeing Stars. This year, I decided to post the piece on LinkedIn, again, on my birthdate: this is not really a new thing for me. I like writing and if anyone chooses to read my work, well, I am so grateful for their interest. After I post, I periodically check to see how well received, or how ignored, the piece is… we all like to be acknowledged, don’t we dear reader? especially for the work we find most pleasurable. I mean who, I ask you, doesn’t like affirmation?
Miracle or Magic
In checking how the post was fairing, my eyes grew quite large as I tried to take in the numbers of views that this post was seemingly drawing. I started screen shooting the meteoric rise in numbers and at this point in time, from January 3rd, to now, 12:19 Jan 8th, this post has been “viewed” 31, 877 times. I noticed that the blog I had written on Eagles was drawing similar attention or “views” and at this point in time, 12:22, has reached 27, 318. I was obsessed: I was clicking and refreshing and recording these numbers by the minute! It was such a fun little distraction and game to play: at one point, “views” had gone up by 3000 in an hour for one of the blogs, and the numbers were similar for the second one. What, I asked God, was going on?
Miracle?
Was I ever so suddenly one of the chosen ones that God was going to miraculously, finally, make popular, after all these years of pouring out my soul in tiny typed letters? This was an intriguing thought: fame, fortune, notoriety, a messengers voice heard and heeded… all very, very enticing and intriguing, wouldn’t you say?
Magic?
I noticed something interesting, in my clicking, my refreshing, my taking note of the numbers. Each time I clicked, within the minute, if I clicked again, the numbers of views, shot up. I wondered to myself, is this magical thinking? Am I somehow making the numbers rise? Is this for real, a glitch, a strange phenomenon? One friend suggested that perhaps Russian bots had taken over. I have to grin as I write, that I think there is some truth in this suggestion. Something was elevating the numbers, and I share with you now, that I am very confident of this: very few people viewed my posts and even less, actually read them. And, thank you, for reading this right now: to those who have read my writing via LinkedIn, I am truly blessed and honoured.
Bamboozled
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| Slight of hand or are you really an ACE |
“A man who flatters his neighbour spreads a net for his feet” (Proverbs 29:5).
Dear reader, I am a Bible reading, Christ loving, Holy Spirit filled lover of God Almighty. I had to ask myself, while fascinated, what is really going on here? Why am I suddenly so popular? I immediately went to work, cleaning two bathrooms, toilet bowls and all. As I cleaned, I recalled Jesus washing the filthy feet of his disciples. As a Christian, I am not to be exalted, and those numbers, they were a tempting way to have me take my eyes off of my purpose, which is to be an ambassador and worker for The King, and have me enjoy my own accomplishment with accompanying acclaim
“Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written,” ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’ Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him” (Matthew 4;8-11).
Saviour or Satan
This is what I know. Social media is an amazing gift to you and me. The sharing, the community broadening and building, are blessings. The other side of this coin is our daily testing, Saviour or Satan? Salvation or Self-aggrandizement? I’m not against LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, Instagram, in fact, I quite enjoy each of these offered-for-free vehicles of information sharing: but there is an almost invisible price tag attached: we can get trapped in the clicks and take our eyes off of Christ.
“For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10).
I sure hope you read this; that it was a good use of your time; that you share it if you found helpful and godly value here. I hope you stay on purpose, read your Bible, and model Christ for someone who really needs to know that God loves him, loves her, in astounding ways.
I am going to post this on LinkedIn with gratitude, and the attitude, that God clarifies and cleanses what our convoluted minds create.
Life, is, funness
