*sigh* As I really & truly sit down to write this, I’m now not so sure I should do it. But, that probably means I should. “Go with your gut,” I usually tell myself. So, here goes nothing!
I want you to start this blog by looking at the following two photos. First is Brooke….
And next is Emma…
They are two of the three most important people in my life. And you can see they are both mimicking what they see me do a LOT – take photos. So I want you to know that I write this blog post with them in mind. The fact that I have two little people watching my every move, makes me more conscious about what I say & do. And what I say, do, post, share, etc on social media is like leaving them a permanent record of who I am & what I stood for. That is where I begin.
Recently, a little Twitter war was brought to my attention. From what I gathered, the gist was that a person in my same profession knowingly took another professional’s work, used it as their own, all while being under the umbrella of a follower of Christ. *ouch* Being a Christian is a hard enough undertaking all on its own. Add to that being in a very public profession, AND add to that sinning in a very public way, and you will rile all kinds of feathers! Without knowing the full details of this situation, I can say that what occurred was wrong, was unlawful, was sinful. Apologies need to be made – both private & public.
Here comes the but….
However, the reaction I have seen to this publicly sinning professional are what saddens me the most. It eerily reminds me of Jesus’s own people yelling, “Crucify him!” In no way do I compare this person to the blameless person of Jesus Christ – just our response to that of the Christians who called for Christ’s crucifixion. It is easy to call for someone’s public humiliation when they publicly sin against another. But is that our right? Is that how Christ calls us to respond? Do we forget the own log in our eye?
Too many times I see MY fellow professionals use social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc) as platforms to blast other professionals for mistakes they make, sins they commit, and thoughtless things they say. My husband always chastises me when I “read” in to his text messages. He says, “It’s just a text. How can you tell my tone of voice in type?” Along the same thread, how do we know what is behind someone’s tweets, status updates, instagram pics, and so on? Instead I see us – photographers – jumping to the worst in people & publicly slamming them. Where are the days of tact? The days of gracefully contacting someone privately & voicing your concerns to them without an audience of your one thousand followers? What I see my friends, is a flurry of bullying via social media.
Am I blameless? Heck no! I am the first to say I have (and do) use my online updates to be: passive aggressive, to make others jealous, to feel better about myself, to toot my own horn….to sin. But lately, this Twitterstorm has made me re-evaluate my words. If I were someone other than me, and I looked through my 11k (that’s right, eleven thousand) tweets, what would I think of me? What do they say about me? Let’s remember the cutting effect of our words. They have more power than we can ever know.
James 3 (NIV)
5 Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. 7 All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
