How You Behave Online

The development of communication technology over this last century, each new invention, has enabled us to be further apart whilst communicating ever more quickly and conveniently. These days, there's pretty much nowhere on Earth where you can't use technology to communicate. Back in the 1950's, when my father (who'd emigrated to Australia from post- war Europe) proposed to my mother (still back in Austria), it took almost three months for his letter to reach her and for her response to come back to him. By comparison, I was recently in a ministry Board meeting in Sydney when a message popped up on my phone from our Africa director visiting a radio station in Zanzibar. It's easy to take that for granted these days, but think about it – that's amazing! Yet the quicker and more convenient our communications become, the more isolated we are from one another, and the more abruptly, the more unthinkingly, we can end up communicating. Some of the emails I receive, the text messages, the comments on social media, step over the line from being abrupt (fair enough, I guess) to being downright rude. It's a real issue. So … time to take stock of our digital communications with some ancient words of wisdom: Ephesians 4:29 When you talk, don't say anything bad. But say the good things that people need—whatever will help them grow stronger. Then what you say will be a blessing to those who hear you. Or, as one of my Facebook friends said recently, post wisely over these next few months. Contribute to discourse but not division. Check your facts. Resist cheap digs. Create beautiful content. Transcend the bitterness and be better, even when you disagree. Then what you say will be a blessing to those who hear you. That's God's Word. Fresh … for you … today.