Avoiding an Instagram Faith

All it takes is one click on your Facebook or Instagram app, and you are instantly transported into a world were everyone is having the time of their lives. Experiences in far away destinations, engagements upon engagements, and non-stop positive and peaceful parenting moments.

Most of us take a both/and approach to the experience of scrolling through our feed and seeing everyone’s fantastic life: We are BOTH frustrated that everyone seems to have achieved perfection, AND we tend to join in, at least a little bit, as well.

We crop our images, run them through beautiful filters, and post videos of our kids singing cute little songs while eating their vegetables, rather than showing the daily meltdowns, kids punching us when they’re tired and fighting it, or cereal and milk for dinner because we’re just trying to survive another day.

While this can create an inauthentic feeling of generalized yuckiness when it comes to our typical day-to-day posts about life, it can be even more dangerous when it comes to posting about our faith.

You’ve seen it.

You’ve scrolled past it.

You, like me, may have even engaged in it.

I’m talking about the way we often “Instagram our faith.”

There’s a thin line between sharing our faith journey in the hopes of drawing others into a closer relationship with Christ and His Church, and sharing our faith journey as a way of saying “Look at me! Look how holy I am!!”

Am I posting a quote from the Liturgy of the Hours because I think others will find it helpful, or because I want people to know I’m praying the Liturgy of the Hours?

Am I telling people I’m headed to Adoration because I want to pray for each and every one’s intentions, or because it feels good to know people think of me as a good and holy person?

Am I tweeting a Scripture passage because it means something to me, or because I’m trying to let people know I read the Scripture?

These are questions we need to ask ourselves, especially those of us who are trying to spread the Good News of the Catholic faith through the means of social media.

[tweet "Posting about #prayer on #social media? Examine your motivation. By @theghissilent"]

The world craves an authentic representation of the faith; keeping it real with our Catholicism online, and we have to continually reassess the true reasons behind our tweets, IG posts, and Facebook updates.

And maybe, just maybe, it’s time to put down our phones and pray without telling the world about it. . . .

“But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”  Matthew 6:6

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Copyright 2017 Tommy Tighe