There.

I said it. I’m addicted.

Not the kind of addiction where I’m actually engaging the friends I have. But the kind of addiction that sends you to the fridge every 5 minutes after 9 o’clock hoping something miraculously appeared since the last time you checked. Truth is, all you find is crap that’s no good for you anyway, but since you’re there you grab some Snickers and the last roll of Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies that you’ve been hoarding and eat that junk like there’s no tomorrow.

And I’m not better for it. By the time I go to bed I feel like an 8 year old that just went trick or treating at the rich golf club with no adult supervision to stop the candy binge.

Maybe for now I have the metabolism to handle that. But here’s what I don’t have…

I don’t have the spiritual life that mirrors my freaking “bumper sticker Christianity” status updates.
What I have is the crazy sense of needing approval and I’ll check Facebook a thousand times after posting something to see how many “likes” I get.

I don’t have the compassion that I should have for others after spending time reading 200 people talk about their day.
What I have do have is a growing impatience for God’s people. And all of sudden the things that break your heart no longer matter to me. The overload of info caused me to stop caring.

I certainly don’t have deep relationships with the majority of my Facebook friends, and when I comment on something that you posted
..it’s more than likely so the rest of my friends can see that I’m exercising some form of 21st century “ministerial care.”

This is what hit me: For the Christian, social media shouldn’t be about “you.” It shouldn’t be about how many friends you have or how many people follow you on Twitter. Rather, for us, social media should be a way that we cultivate more meaningful relationships during the times we aren’t together in a building or formal group.

What do you think? How can we use the gift of social media to establish stronger faith communities?