God’s Love > Facebook Likes

 

Read: John 3:1-21          

On February 9, 2009 Facebook created the “like” button on their social media website.  Since that date people have been “liking” updates that friends have posted on their lives, activities, opinions, food choices, and just about everything else you can think of.  Too often people try to gauge their validation or satisfaction by how many people “like” their latest post.

Justin Rosenstein was one of the four Facebook designers that invented that “like” button back in 2009.  In a recent interview with Julian Morgans he said, “Initially the button was an innocent thing. It had nothing to do with hijacking the social rewards systems of a user’s brain. The main intention I had was to make positivity the path of least resistance.  I think it succeeded in its goals, but it also created large unintended negative side effects.  Today most people seek our social media sites with one vague thought in mind: Maybe someone liked my stuff.  And it’s this craving for validation, experienced by billions around the globe, that’s currently pushing platform engagement in ways that in 2009 were unimaginable.”

We all like to be liked.  There is really nothing wrong about liking someone else’s Facebook post. But when we use those means to validate our worth we lose site of who we are in the eyes of God.  God’s love for us goes far beyond the approval or validation that people will or will not give to us.  It is in God’s love that we must focus our attention.

God’s Word validates God’s love for us in so many ways and in so many places.  One of the best-known verses is John 3:16 which says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  Romans 5:8 also says, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

The Holy Week of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter are times in which this love that God has for us is remembered and celebrated.  My hope is that we can live with that truth each and every day of our lives.  God loves you, God likes you, and God’s Son Jesus Christ was crucified and resurrected for you.  You are loved!

Make it personal:  In the days ahead remember to look to God for your worth and validation.  It does not rest in how many people like your social media posts or in what they say about you.  God loves you and that is the final word!

Have a great week everyone, Glen Rhodes