This week has been both a joyous and a bit of a sad week for me. Early this week was the first occasion my father’s birthday occurred since his passing last spring. I have a firm faith that what we call death is a doorway from this life to the next; and that since his passing, after years living with Type III diabetes (aka Alzheimer’s), I feel my father’s essence more since his passing. But it was still a bit sad. Everyone who knew my Dad well and anyone who has loved someone who journies this path likely knows what I mean. Dad could transmit more with the tilt of his head and a half-smile than most of us could in an hour-long conversation. Not a perfect man, but when it mattered an encourager.
Yesterday was my mother’s 86th birthday. We spoke at great length and she is feeling so blessed to have lived such a long life; even if these last few years have been with a decline in her physical health. She lives in a skilled nursing facility now, but true to form, she is always working on learning something new. This fall she learned a complicated crochet stitch, more complex because she is left-handed. And now she is learning to paint Mandalas. As someone who lives daily with excruciating pain from the degeneration of her bones, the process of painting a mandala is meditative and helps her focus on something other than the pain. She is focused on living her life to the best of her ability on her terms, and that gives me great comfort. In the last few months as I have taken on a new big project she has been the captain of my encourager squad.
When I am able to, I listen online to my mother’s church service* so that we have something we can talk about together. (She watches it on her Kindle.) This morning the minister spoke about Acts 15 and talked about Barnabas. He talked about how Barnabas was an encouraging force – he nurtured and sought to be a positive influence rather than be a complainer or only point out the negative. This hit home to me in such a way that I felt I needed to stop what I was doing and write.
I could write about the polarization of Washington, but what hit home for me today was how this related to Social Media. On some of the pages and groups, I am on, there is so much focus on the negative; on standing in judgment, and speaking ill of something or someone. There are times my soul just hurts when I see good people going so negative. When we chip away at the underpinnings of a person’s self-esteem or an organization’s growth by focusing on a public forum on the negative, even if well-intentioned, there are lasting consequences that may not be the intent of the writer, but will result.
Can we all try to be more like Barnabas, and encourage and nurture people and organizations in a positive fashion? Will it be easy? No. Getting out of the rut of negativity is hard, but it can be done.
I challenge each of us to try to practice Barnabas-style social media postings for a week.
It is my hope and prayer by bringing this up, that myself and maybe just one other person on the planet will take up the challenge.
Always,
Beth
*Washington Baptis Church http://www.washingtonbaptist.org/