The Telegraph of Narcissus

In 2009, there was a brief hubbub about NBA player Shaquille O'Neal using the popular social media platform Twitter to "tweet" updates on himself during half-time.  Fans loved it, but his coach feared it would steal his focus on the game.  During the ensuing debates, one commentator called electronic media such as Twitter, Facebook, and Blogger the "Telegraph of Narcissus" indicating that these forms of communication betray a gross sense of self-obsession among those who use them.  I made a mental note of the commentator's term because I wholeheartedly agreed with him at the time.  That was nearly two years ago.  Today, before logging onto this Blogger page, I checked both my Facebook and Twitter account.  The times, they are a changin'.

In Philippians 2:3, Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit encourages us to "do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves."  In other words, as the people of God, we are not to be self-focused, but humble, allowing the needs of others to be served and promoted before our own.  Paul goes on to show how Jesus Christ himself lived this way and set the bar high for us, his followers.

This gave me some pause in my sudden interest in using social media.  Was I giving into "vain conceit"?  Was I subscribing to the "telegraph of Narcissus" that I had so vehemently criticized formerly.  Was I completely overthinking the whole thing?  Is there a good chance that not a single person in the world would even care what conclusion I came to on the matter?  (I'm sure the answer is yes, to the last two questions, at least).

After thinking through it, I found, in my own situation, several reasons to use social media (this blog in particular)

1.  It is an opportunity to "become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some." (I Corinthians 9:22).  If there is a chance that someone might get a glimpse of Christ and the gospel of grace through a blog or a tweet or a facebook post, then it is worth making the effort.  There are countless people in the world who would not come to Centerpoint Community Church and hear Bible teaching, but they just might skim a blog out of curiosity.

2.  It is an opportunity for me to grow in my gifts and so serve others better.  I beleive that I have been given the role of being a teacher in the Body of Christ.  The ability to faithfully and effectively communicate the deep truths of God's Word has been graciously given to me by the Holy Spirit who gives each beleiver their own wonderful role or gift for the purpose of building up the Church.  I beleive that while the gift is supernatural and given by grace alone, that we have the opportunity to "fan into flame" the gifts that God gives us by using and practicing them (2 Timothy 1:6).  I can practice being a better communicator of truth by honing my written communication skills here.  My prayer is that this will result ultimately in more people understanding God's Word.

3.  It is an opportunity for me to get to know other people better by opening myself up a little.  I pray that those who know me a little would be able to see my heart (and see Christ there in my heart) and so know me a little better as I share thoughts and news, and bits of random and useless trivia.  And I pray that those who do not know me might see Christ in me, somehow, and be drawn to Him through something that is blogged or tweeted or posted on facebook. 

I hope I have not bored you entirely with this introductory blog.  If nothing else, I hope it was slightly more thoughtful than Shaq's controversial half-time tweet, which (if you care to know) was "shhhhhh."
Signing off of the Telegraph of Narcissus,
-Pastor Josh