I just read a good blog post by Christian blogger Tim Challies entitled “Facebook Makes Us Miserable.” It’s worth reading, but for the sake of this post, the gist is this: Facebook leads us to believe that others are leading a better life than us, which in turn makes us unhappy. I think this is true for a lot of people, although I partially disagree that “Facebook is meant to be a happy place for happy people.” There are plenty of angsty statuses out there, although for the most part their purpose is to garner attention. Some people want you to believe that their life is worse than it actually is. But anyway, I’m straying from the point that Tim is making, which is that people don’t really portray their life in accordance with reality on social media sites.

I’d like to take this even one step further and assert that this behavior can be even worse amongst Christians (obviously I’m referring to some, not all). As a Christian, I believe that my testimony and my witness on social media sites is important. But sometimes I wish I could just write about what’s going on in my life, without the usual Christian qualifier (which is something like “but God is good” or “but God is sovereign”). For example: “Something terrible happened today…but God is still good.” Of course I KNOW that God is good, and sovereign, and I want my friends to know that I have a solid hope in God in the good times AND the bad. And I have joy—but that can’t be equated with happiness. Happiness is a feeling, joy is sort of a…condition. A mind-set. So basically, I don’t want my unbelieving friends to think that I’m HAPPY when I have a bad day. What kind of absurd witness is that? I want them to know that I feel pain too, just like them. And that’s the challenge… a challenge that I haven’t quite figured out yet.

For the most part, I don’t think it’s appropriate to air every feeling and complaint on Facebook. That only serves to feed narcissism and does nothing to edify others. But I’d like to remind everyone that behind the virtual personas and avatars are real people, and none of them are invincible.

So let me be completely candid with you for a moment about my life. I struggle with things sometimes. Sometimes, I’m lonely. Sometimes I battle with feelings of depression and despair (what a thing for a Christian to admit! But don’t forget about the settled joy I mentioned earlier, and the hope of a bright future based on God’s promises). Sometimes I feel like an alien, even at church, because my secular interests are so different from everyone else’s. Sometimes I’m so disgustingly selfish that I wish I could crawl out of my own skin. You won’t see me saying these things via Facebook statuses whenever they happen because that’s not really appropriate, but trust me, they DO happen. And when they do, being the sinner that I am, sometimes I turn to a lot of things before I pick up my Bible. Sometimes I cry, or hug my corgi, or punch a pillow, or eat a lot of chips. But the difference between a saved person and an unbeliever is that even when I’m feeling depressed: I know, deep in my heart, with all certainty and not a shadow of a doubt, that everything is going to be OK. Why? Because God said so.