Often times, I have this strong fleshly desire to post on Facebook or Twitter regarding personal feelings that I have toward social and political issues, especially in the current emotional climate that we are in leading up to the 2016 presidential election! Everything from political speeches, to what is and isn’t politically correct anymore, I’m wanting so badly to jump in with my opinions and remarks, hoping to make some kind of sting into those that I don’t like or disagree with. I feel like everyday I am making statements like, “this is unbelievable” or “who is going to stop this”? Much like you, my mind wonders if any candidate can be trusted! I wonder, where is my voice, my platform to tell all how I feel? Is it Facebook, is it Twitter, or Wednesday nights to bunch of teenagers who are more concerned with Instagram likes and selfies than they are of Donald Trumps misquote of 2nd Corinthians! I don’t know that it’s any of these!

Our culture has become inundated, by way of social media, with heavily opinionated broadcasters abusing the character of people and in someway, trying to promote their own agendas! Us Christians are so desperate to have a voice, that often times we post and share feelings and emotions, disregarding and forgetting the effect that the Gospel ought to have in our life. We respond to people and issues the opposite way that the Gospel has responded to us. As if we have this right.

Please hear that I’m not saying we can’t have feelings, emotions, and beliefs about social issues and others. Clearly, all throughout the Gospel, Jesus carried such things and even communicated this to others. But, I think a more proper question to ask is, how are we filtering what we text and verbalize? What lens are we honestly looking through as we communicate to others.

I have been thinking about this long and hard over the last couple of years, and the prevailing thought that stays at the forefront of my mind is the belief that Christians are struggling to find a platform where their voice can be heard and received, and regardless of how we feel about being respected or not, what we do say will begin to carry some weight in our culture, even among those who have no regard for the Gospel. I believe in some small way we saw this play out when certain media outlets begin broadcasting the way Planned Parenthood was dealing with abortion. Through all of the undercover footage that was released, I believe that many began to see how disturbing sin truly is, even those who do not believe, and for a brief moment in time, in the social sector of America, Christianity had a voice that held traction! Not that I think this is our goal, because I do believe that truth reigns and is prevailing across the world, but I do believe there’s a way to respond from our emotions and feelings that keeps the Gospel centered in our life.

So how should we respond? The greatest answer that I can ever give you is to look at Jesus. I challenge you to read the book of Luke! I can tell you that there are moments where He responded with love and truth, moments that He responded with grace, moments where He responded with a righteous anger, and moments where He said nothing, he stayed silent, withdrew, and prayed. For some of us, our greatest struggle! In every way Jesus stayed absolute to himself! So I ask you to read this Gospel this month with me and see that Jesus is your filter, your lens! May you see this His way is always perfect! There are times to speak, but I wonder if there are more times to be silent, to withdraw, and pray?