To Friend or Not To Friend

Every once in awhile I receive a friend request on Facebook from a person that I do not know well or at all (a friend of a friend of a friend). And I sometimes also know that they are not a Christ follower. I am particular about who I follow on the social networking scene such as Facebook and Twitter. I pick and choose who I associate with carefully. However, I am not so sure that I should be so careful of those who follow me.

Why?

Even through social media there is the possibility that my status updates and profile posts could help a non-believer learn about Christ. It just might be that someone following my posts and updates would be able to sense how the Lord is working in my life. It is a very real possibility that my updates could serve as a starting point for an individual. So if my posts could possibly plant seeds to an unbeliever or a person who has fallen away from Christ, why not friend them? After all, I can control what I see in return by filtering what gets through to me on my home feeds. Since I have this technology available to protect what I see, shouldn't I friend someone who is requesting my online friendship when I am giving glory and trying to honor God with how I live so it can be shared with someone else?

If just one of my updates or tweets would get someone to start thinking about God, wonder about the life of Jesus, or wonder what it is like to live as a believer by seeing what goes on in my own life (up close and personal-not superficially), then it is worth it to me to friend them. I hope that as I use social media I am using it to bring glory to God. I hope I use it to evangelize. I hope to use it for missions work when I can't be out reaching the entire world. I hope to use it to show others that God is real, that God does love us, and that salvation through Christ is available. I hope to use it to teach and reach!

One person at a time, one friend request at a time, I have the opportunity to talk about faith with people I couldn't reach otherwise. And they don't even realize I am talking to them about Christianity through updating my status' and sending tweets about how I am living through my own life. How cool is that?!

Christians can now fly under the "I'm going to tell you about Jesus" radar that makes most non-believers run. Instead, I can tell them by what I DO and SAY in my own life.

Now, I'm going to tweet this!