Believing in a Facebook God

Like it or not, we're living in a Facebook world. Hundreds of millions of people use the social network to keep up with family and friends, follow their favorite brands and celebrities, and share their photos and videos with the world.

Over the years, Mark Zuckerberg and the Facebook team have instituted a series of privacy controls that allow users to protect themselves and their information. One of these changes allows you to follow a person or an organization without allowing that person or organization to follow you back. You get to learn about them, but they don't get to learn anything about you.

Another Facebook privacy control makes it possible to only show certain posts to certain people. So, the pictures of the party you just went to can be seen by your friends but not your parents...and the post about how you hate your job can be seen by your parents but not your boss.

I have found myself wondering recently whether I might be following a Facebook God, rather than following the God of the Universe. I wonder how often I'm content to know about God - to periodically get his status updates on my wall (so to speak) - but never apply what he says to my life and never give him the opportunity to truly know me either.

In our small group, we're studying the book of Acts. The other night we summed-up the passage we were reading this way: Christians see salvation as the finish line. Disciples see salvation as the start. In the context of the Facebook analogy you might say, "Christians see clicking 'like' as the finish line. Disciples see clicking 'like' as the start."

Psalm 139 reminds us that a relationship with Christ is just that, a relationship. It's a two-way street. We must know and be known. In verses 23 and 24 David says, "Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." David was willing to be known. To be vulnerable. To be led by a God whom he trusted with everything - even the yucky stuff.

Christianity isn't meant to have privacy controls. In fact, it can't have privacy controls. It's impossible to become who Jesus is while refusing to acknowledge who we are.