God is good. All the time.

I think that the majority of my Facebook posts are positive – I usually post about finding something fun or funny, or that I am grateful for something or someone.  I rarely write the words “God” or “Jesus” in my Facebook posts, although I have been following Jesus for over 20 years. I believe that God is honored in this.

There are two major reasons why I frequently hesitate to write “God” on Facebook. The first is because in my worldview, God is supporting everything that is good, and God is present in everything that is difficult. Everything. All the time. So if I were going to write about God's involvement in something, it would be in every sentence:

When I write about food, I think about God's creativity and creation. I really do – every single time that I write or think about food, I think about the One who came up with such a wonderful idea and sustains it all. When I write about joys in the town I recently moved to or about my frustrations with the number of times I've moved, I am conscious of the rather direct ways in which God led me here: 1) someone read a mass prayer letter I sent and wrote to me about moving here, and 2) at a time where there were very specific ways that I needed to grow in my profession, this town afforded me opportunities in that direction that were beyond what I'd even hoped for. When I write about my friends and issues of provision, I am very aware of the fact that despite my frequent moves God blesses me with quality relationships. I also know that many of the reasons that I am single have to do with my worldview and with my personality – which I also choose to accept as a gift from God.

There is a second reason that I do not readily verbally attribute gifts to God on Facebook, and that is due to my understanding of spiritual warfare. I frequently write “Life can be so wonderful,” instead of “God is good,” because while I believe that God is indeed undergirding all good things that happen, and verbally thank God countless times per day (I live alone, which makes this easier to do out loud!), I also know that I have the wonderful things that I write about because I was born in a country that uses power and violence to obtain its wealth. I am conscious that so many of my brothers and sisters suffer and (literally) die on a daily basis to support my access to material things. This gives me pause when thinking of writing “God is good” about a glass of wine when so many are denied access to clean drinking water.  I do thank God for the wine -- and for my job, for my apartment, for my potable water that comes on tap.  But I hesitate to write about "blessings" that in one sense come from God but in another very real sense come from a place very, very far from God's heart.

I believe that in the fullness of time God's Kingdom will come in completeness as the earth is made new and becomes one with heaven. I seek to consistently choose the Kingdom way of love, generosity, kindness, forgiveness, mercy, honesty, and justice. I truly hope that God is glorified in every aspect of my life, including Facebook. :-)

P.S.  In reflecting further on this issue, I have two additional comments.
1) Another reason that I do not always write about God's working in my heart on certain issues because Facebook isn't a particularly intimate space.
2) In both Spanish and Kreyol I write or say "God willing" when discussing planned future events.  I do this because it's expected of me in those contexts.  But after decades of becoming more profoundly aware of God's involvement and activity and presence, adding "God willing" seems superfluous.  And yes, I have read the fourth chapter of James.