Photo by Tomwsulcer, Wikipedia Commons, This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
"Reposting" is not in my online dictionary as a real word, but it is a part of our daily usage and practice.
We "repost" all the time, little tidbits, anecdotal "evidence," and clever arguments that support the ideas we already embrace.
If we see something in the news, no matter how reputable or disreputable the source, we "repost" it as long as it underlines and supports our views.
Don't get me wrong. I am not off-the-hook for this.
I like the news to support my narrative of reality as much as anyone, but …
I do not like egg on my face if subsequent facts prove me wrong
… and I love truth … so I am waiting to do analysis and draw conclusions until more facts surface.
Speaking of that, I did some reflecting on truth 10 years ago and made these notes:
I Hate Truth … sometimes
Sometimes I hate truth …
sometimes …
But only the way a kid hates his parents for a flash of a moment when they yank his chain and put a lid on his poor choices. The hate is really love lashing out at the boundaries.
Example: I don't want to go online and look at my bank balance … mainly because it tells me the truth and I am not sure I want to know it …
But I need to know it if I am going to do anything about it.
Sometimes I can't do anything now, so I don't want to look. Yet, still I need to know.
It is the shock that I really want to avoid.
But the shock does not last forever and the information goes into a pot on low heat and eventually will combine with other ingredients and produce a creative stew of possibilities.
That will only happen if I am willing to look at the truth.
That is why I just checked my online bank statement.
Ouch! I need to turn up the heat a notch.
I really don't hate truth at all. I love truth … I think.
I am concerned about one of the ways we are dealing with truth and the numbing effect it is having on our sensitivities. With the news cycle keeping us informed of so many tragedies and travesties of justice, we can get numb, or calloused, or even belligerent.
We need to cultivate our compassion filters. Our hearts and minds need a compass. We need the heart of God for real people that are touched by everything reported in the news.
The Jesus Way is the way of compassion, love, and grace whatever our prevailing narrative or philosophical framework might be,
Compassion is fragile.
We declare it and own it
until it challenges something
we cherish more dearly
like our cherished narrative
or our personal comfort
or our sense of indignation at
the behavior of our enemies
or our neatly arranged systems of
thinking
about almost anything.
Then, it is the first value to go.
Compassion is fragile.
We could start every day with an attitude of compassion that says from the outset, "I am going to filter every impression I form through the pain of the people involved."
That would be a start.
Then, come our words and they may be the words we speak and repeat or the words we post and repost.
Words are things and they have lives of their own.
They travel. They mutate. They infiltrate.
Once released, we cannot retrieve them.
We are likely to be misunderstood even when we are careful with them, more likely when we are careless.
What would Jesus post?
And … if he were not such an original thinker ("teaches as one with authority"), repost?
Social media is here to stay; let's learn to use it in the service of truth and compassion.
Pastor Tom's Community 
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