I have lost my focus.

Getting our church through the pandemic in some kind of connected manner was consuming.

In the process, I think I’ve started to get caught up in the monster that is social media. I’ve walked into the trap.

Now, I’m trying to fight my way back out.

No, I don’t want to give up social media. I don’t think I can. I don’t think I have that option. I also don’t think that simply dropping something is always the right answer. There has to be a different way.

But, right now I’m feeling pretty stuck in a negative mindset. Which isn’t surprising, because it’s nearly impossible to get away from it. (Which by the way is one reason I’m not walking away from the monster. I want to help fill it with positive and overwhelm the negative of it all.)

Has our church come through the pandemic? Not entirely, no church has yet. But, I’m definitely feeling like it’s time to get back to who I was before all this happened.

Anyone with me?

There is a lot of good about social media. For instance, that’s probably how you saw this post. But, there is a lot of bad. It’s easy to share something without thinking about how it’s going to affect someone. It’s easy to comment harshly without worrying about how others will receive it. It’s easy to say something you would never say face to face.

A lot of people I know have quit social media altogether, or drop off from time to time. But, how do you stay connected during a pandemic? Before the pandemic, we were still super busy and didn’t seem to have much time to be in people’s lives face to face, so how do we stay connected?

I guess we can just hide all the negative people. And I have hidden quite a few. And no, not just people I disagree with. People on both sides. Probably equally, maybe even more hiding of people I agree with.

But, I know it is possible to remain positive even when surrounded by a tidal wave of negativity.

I just can’t do it alone. Will you help me? Will you share more positive things? Will you share more real life pictures and memories? At the same time, can we help encourage one another? Can we seek to build one another up? And instead of instantly assuming the worst about someone, work our hardest to assume the best?

I started using a hashtag the other day called #overwhelmthenegative.

There are a lot more of us people than there are new organizations that are pumping out the negativity. The reason they pump it out is because we click on it and they make money. But, what if we just overwhelmed social media with positivity, so much so that what got lost was all the negative junk?

You know what would happen, is they would have to pay more money in advertising to be heard. What if we so overwhelmed their negativity that they ended up spending so much money trying to get our attention that they either left the platform or even went bankrupt? Wouldn’t that be amazing! I think so.

What if we refused to click on their links and at the same time shared an abundance of positive, happy things?

I can tell you, it would really encourage me. I think it would help us all.