I am amazed at the quality and impressiveness of the people I follow on social media. They are incredible. I cannot believe the number of those I follow who are experts in macroeconomics and international relations, especially in terms of the UK’s relationship with the European Union. But even more than that, I am astonished that those same individuals are now accomplished epidemiologists and experts in the realm of pandemic management. I apologise for the, hopefully obvious, sarcasm in this comment but the point I am making is that social media has given each one of us a platform to express our stresses, frustrations and anger in a globally public forum and in a way which perhaps if we were in the same room as others, we may not express quite so forcefully as we do on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat or any of the other countless platforms. When we place this tendency alongside the reality that social media gives a platform to every wacky, dubious and downright false idea and belief on a par with high quality, thought-through and researched concepts then it can be a recipe for disaster.
Negative bias is a psychological concept which has existed as a concept for many years, and predates social media. In fact, it could be argued that this concept of always tending towards something negative goes right back to the garden of Eden, when the serpent said to Eve, “Did God really say …?” and so planted doubt about the goodness of God in Eve’s mind. And that negative bias has been a part of our fallen nature ever since. Some have managed to control it better than others but it is still there, lurking in the background. I would call myself, generally, a positive, glass-half-full, type of person. But I know that in times of stress and uncertainty, negativity can rise and I have certainly found this in this current season. One church leader has put it like this,
“The brain is wired to notice danger more than delight. The brain is more alert to what is bad than what is good. We respond more quickly and powerfully to what is unpleasant than to the pleasurable. In fact, our reactions to good and bad are just not equal. Bad is much more powerful. We are wired to notice threats, problems, setbacks, and to act to protect ourselves from what is bad.
It is easier to be cynical than it is to be cheerful.
Sarcasm is easier than sweetness.
Complaining trumps cheerleading.
We take for granted our health, but obsess over our aches and pains.
Unhappy is just a step away, but we have to climb our way to happiness.
The pleasure we get from winning an amount of money is much less than the pain we experience at losing that same amount.
This is why the evening news focuses so much on what went wrong during the day. (They also have enough psychology to provide a positive pick-you-up-story late in the newscast.)”
(Pastor Brian Rice, Living Word Community Church, Red Lion, Pennsylvania)
The Apostle Paul gives us a stark reality-check in his letter to the Galatian church, when he says:
“Now the works of the flesh are obvious. They are such things as fornication, uncleanness, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, strife, jealousy, bursts of rage, selfish ambition, factiousness, divisions, moods of envy, drunkenness, wild partying and similar things.” (Galatians 5:19-21a New Testament For Everyone)
Wow, and the part that frustrates me in this scripture is the ‘and similar things’ because I might be able to tick of not doing the detailed list but I know that there is something in me that would have something that fits into that ‘similar things’ category.
So, where does this take us in our examination of the Philippians 4 passage. In verse 5 it says:
“Let your gentleness be evident to all.” (Philippians 4:5a – NIV)
or as Colin Urquhart puts it in his translation of the New Testament,
“Let your gentle spirit be obvious to others” (Philippians 4:5a – The Truth New Testament)
Yesterday, I looked at the command to be joyful but how do we actually achieve that in a world which is so full of negativity, destruction, criticism and comparison. We Paul starts to unpack that in these verses coming up and the first tool is being gentle.
When I was a new Christian many years ago, I was introduced to a concept which talked about moving in the ‘opposite spirit’ by YWAM. In essence this means that we don’t defeat something negative by focussing on that negative thing but by focussing on, thinking of, something Godly or healthy. Our natural tendency to deal with something such as fear, is to focus on the fear and deal with it. Don’t miss-hear me, we do need to analyse why we are fearful and what things might trigger this. But the key way of combatting fear is to focus on celebrating the good we have. We combat lack and greed by generosity. We combat political back-biting and ambition by being humble and servant-hearted.
So in the midst of challenge and uncertainty, Paul tells us here to be gentle. As Tom Wright puts it in his translation of this verse, “Let everybody know how gentle and gracious you are.” For me, that means not giving way at this time to every tendency to criticise, complain, challenge or question. One of the greatest challenges at the moment is that a 24-hour news media needs to fill every minute of every day and, as I quoted earlier, the best news for any news channel is ‘bad news’ because it feeds that negative bias in us. Therefore, I have chosen to do the following:
- GET RID OF THE NEGATIVE. Switch the news off. If you know me you know that I am rather a news junkie. It comes from doing a degree in politics where I needed to watch and review the news from 5-6 different news outlets every day. However, I found that I was constantly watching the news channels, who have only one item of news, coronavirus, and I was getting more and more anxious! So, I now probably only watch one news programme a day and I choose a specific news programme rather than the 24/7 channels.
- DON’T REACT TO NEGATIVITY. Don’t respond or react to every negative social media post. I find I can spot a negative, critical post a mile off and try not to open it or respond to it. It is not my duty to police the internet. Very occasionally I might make a general comment on a friend’s post suggesting that this may not be the most helpful but if I respond to a critical post by being critical, all I have done it reinforce that negative spirit and I find myself getting sucked into being negativity again.
- CHOOSE TO BE GENTLE. Find good things, hopeful posts or kind comments and focus on those and if I can’t see them … post some new ones myself. So, to live this out, I am going to try and remember to post three separate posts on my social media each day, (i) A person I am thankful for, (ii) A place or experience that brings me joy and (iii) A small or local business who I want to encourage and celebrate, especially as they may be struggling at this time.
I’m loving how different Bible translations are putting these verses I am looking at and so here’s how The Voice Translation puts. Verse 5a,
“Keep your gentle nature so that all people will know what it looks like to walk in His footsteps.”
As we choose this way, we are helping others too. As Martyn Lloyd-Jones says of this verse,
“You must go further if you want your moderation [gentleness] to be known unto all men: you must actively and positively consider them.”
Or as Nicky Gumbel says of this gentleness,
“It is the opposite of contention, abrasives and self-seeking desires. It means being willing to forgo retaliation. There is no need to defend ourselves because the Lord is coming and he will vindicate us.”
I don’t know about you, but I need to remember this and I need to put it into action in my life and especially in my online interactions. Social media can be good, so let’s make it that way and try to implement these words of Paul online as well as in our thoughts. To finish let me challenge myself (and you, if you want) to use these words of James as we consider what we put online:
“If you consider yourself to be wise and one who understands the ways of God, advertise it with a beautiful, fruitful life guided by wisdom’s gentleness. Never brag or boast about what you’ve done and you’ll prove that you’re truly wise. But if there is bitter jealousy or competition hiding in your heart, then don’t deny it and try to compensate for it by boasting and being phoney. For that has nothing to do with God’s heavenly wisdom but can best be described as the wisdom of this world, both selfish and devilish. So wherever jealousy and selfishness are uncovered, you will also find many troubles and every kind of meanness.
But the wisdom from above is always pure, filled with peace, considerate and teachable. It is filled with love and never displays prejudice or hypocrisy in any form and it always bears the beautiful harvest of righteousness! Good seeds of wisdom’s fruit will be planted with peaceful acts by those who cherish making peace.” James 3:13-18 (The Passion Translation)