Fleshbook Facelift

I have been on the verge of deactivating my Facebook account. If I weren't in the midst of some awesome conversations, I would do so. A series of reasons have urged me to keep it. Contact with distant friends and family. The teaching, revelation and conversation I get from the friendships I've found there (Click here for some examples).

Recently the desire to deactivate has been growing. And I've started telling myself to keep it, if only to promote my blog. Papa has spoken to me directly, three times now, on the issue of self-promotion. First was a suggestion to stop checking my page views. I get curious. I want to know if people are reading. I get motivated to write more when I see people are reading more. And therein lies the heart of Papa's suggestion, I believe. I don't ever want to alter my content in order to gain or maintain viewership. This is the same as a pastor altering her message to please (sometimes conversely, to chasten) her congregation, a reason I've quit following teachings in the past.

The second time was to reveal to me the issue I was facing, because I hadn't been aware of an issue at all. I knew what I didn't want to do - cater to crowds at the expense of truth and honesty - and figured that was enough to prevent myself from doing it. What I didn't realize is I was laying the groundwork to do just that, and could very well wind up on a soapbox I didn't know I'd built.

Why aren't you checking your pageviews? Papa asked.

I am trusting that if anyone will benefit from my writing, Papa, you will provide them with it.

I do not need to promote myself. Doing so is an act of mistrust. (Personal revelation, with various factors contributing. I don't suggest this is the case for everyone!)

When I allow my writing to be altered by fear of a negative reaction from a reader, even for a brief moment, I am allowing pride, doubt, vanity, and a host of other demonic forces to influence me. Not good. Not my goal. The third time Papa spoke was today, through the following Fleshbook post from Praying Medic. For me, it was confirmation that I can trust Papa with this blog. I do not need to self-promote. Papa is my provider. He will provide for both reader and writer. This is good news, because it speaks into a slew of other areas in my life. (It also confirms several aspects of our conversation that would simply be a repeat of Medic's note were I to share. But dang, this is  a good note.)


To read "My Friend Request and Facebook Philosophy," by Praying Medic, click the title link or read below. The comments section below the note are pretty encouraging and uplifting, so I do suggest going to the source if you can.


My Friend Request & Facebook Philosophy:
By Praying Medic

I wanted to share a few things that have been on my heart for a while. I had a dream last night that suggested it would be helpful if I explained a few things to my friends:

At the present time, I'm not able to receive friend requests. 
For whatever reason - this seems to change almost daily.
I'm not at my friend limit (5,000) but I have too many pending friend requests, which limits the ability of anyone to send a request.


So here's my philosophy on friend requests:
1) I used to have 2 Praying Medic profiles, but I shut down the other one. It was too hard to maintain both.

2) I rarely interact with more than a few hundred of my "friends" in any particular month. The friends I interact with tend to be the ones who are intentional about interacting with me. They hang around my timeline and get to know me, so they become more a part of my life. That's just how Facebook is. You develop friendships with people you spend time with. Having more friends doesn't necessarily mean greater interaction with them. Friendships are usually intentional.

3) If you are not on my friends list - you have the same access to my timeline that my friends have. You can post prayer requests, comment on threads, read my notes and send private messages. With the exception of tagging me, you have the same access to my timeline that anyone else has. So don't feel slighted or left out. 

4) I do send out friend requests to people who interact (in a positive way) on my timeline. I'm intentional about recruiting people who share a common vision and a positive attitude. If you're interested in being added as a friend - consider hanging out on my timeline. 

My Facebook Philosophy:

I believe deeply that the strength of Facebook is our willingness to post about the interesting/ provocative/ humorous / touching / and awesome things we see happening in the lives of others. In the dream I had last night, I was helping some new friends get their stuff recognized. I promoted their pages on my timeline and helped them write content. I'm not opposed to doing this in cases where I know the person and they trust me enough to help them out. 

But a lot of folks make the mistake of promoting only themselves, their ministry, their blog, their pages, their videos, their pictures, etc. If your Facebook experience is mainly about promoting yourself - with no thought to promoting others, don't be surprised if few people show up to hear the latest news. That's how Facebook is. 

I have a few blogs of my own. I also admin a few pages and about a dozen groups. I have a Twitter account and some other social network sites, but in all those things, I tend to share a mix of content that is mostly about others. Only a fraction of the content is my own material.

Why?

Because focusing on ourselves isn't the best way to display the works of God in the earth. If we are a body - then it's important to showcase what other parts of the body are doing. That's how we honor one another and the work of God and that's why I post a lot of content from others. Frankly - I don't think my material is all that exciting. So I find cool things that others have posted and share it on my timeline and blogs.

And strangely enough - people show up to read about it.