Likes

I felt like a lurker. Stunned by what I’d just seen, I began checking out the Likes on a young friend’s Instagram photo. I felt uneasy, like I was trespassing. Why should I check out who Liked the photo? Scanning a list of names, my heart stopped at one and beat sadly; I turned off my phone and asked, “What was such a youngster doing— looking at it and  Liking it?” And then, “What was I doing looking at it with such dis-like?”

It wasn’t the kind of Instagram I usually follow, with pictures of happy families, engaging antics of my friends’ dogs and cats, artists’ sharing their latest photos and sketches, and friends brightening my day with shots of scenic beauty and travel snaps.

The anomalous picture evoked words like lust and wasted; it stirred feelings of darkness and  judgment.Was my friend rebelling? Testing? Or did a weak place break under temptation?  My heart ached for the circumstances and choices that are gumming up our culture’s conscience with temporarily alluring but inwardly entangling and destructive sticky, gooey sin. I thought of cotton candy— sweet for a moment— but a dirt catcher on the fingers.

I trust the young friend who posted the picture. I trust his love of life and capacity for joy. I trust that his healthy Godly desires will win out over temptations to dissolution and that his love for God and others will steady his choices. But what about the children who look up to him? The children who respect and admire him, who are drawn in by my friend’s charisma and intelligent creativity to Like a moment of darkness?

And what about me? How many moments of darkness have I embraced?  How often have I Liked a wild moment or an ego inflating friendship?  What about my influence on others?  What about my curiosity and negative “Ain’t it awful” reactions to today’s Instagram Like? I too am both the prodigal and the elder sibling. Jesus did not teach us to pray “lead them or lead me not into temptation,”  but He taught us to pray,  “Father, lead us, not into temptation, but deliver us from all evil.”

How much we all need a Savior to cleanse our hearts and consciences. How often we all need the Holy Spirit’s love and strength to guard our hearts. How greatly we need His teaching to inform our likes and to guide our lives, to make us more like the loving Father who embraces all of His children.

Create in me a clean heart O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Psalm 51:10

And then, Lord,

Keep our hearts with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.
Proverbs 4:23

Make known to us the path of life;
In Your presence there is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.  Psalm 16:11