Add a Word, Ruin a Christian Book

In Proverbs 15, we see a series of verses addressing our attitude, and how a sense of God's joy can shape our attitude:

13A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance, But by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.14The heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge, But the mouth of fools feeds on foolishness.15All the days of the afflicted are evil, But he who is of a merry heart has a continual feast.
Ecclesiastes says there is a time to weep and a time to laugh.   Laughter is a tool that God has given to us to help to release certain negative emotions, such as worry and anxiety, or to relieve stress or tension.  If we are taking ourselves less seriously sometimes, it can open a door for the production of God's authentic joy within our hearts.    So, even in times of sorrow, if we can find ways to access the joy of the Lord, which can be our strength, it can be incredibly helpful and shape our perspective on the circumstances that can weigh us down.   God wants to lighten our load and give us a sense of His joy.

In Psalm 126, we read that after the people of Israel were brought back from captivity,

2Then our mouth was filled with laughter, And our tongue with singing. Then they said among the nations, "The Lord has done great things for them."3The Lord has done great things for us, And we are glad.

It was good to have Amy Lamb from the University of Mobile Center for Leadership on the program yesterday, and we were discussing a piece she had written about social media myths.   I am a frequent user of Twitter, and use it to communicate information about the show - if you're not following my Twitter feed already, I encourage you to do so, just go to MeetingHouseOnline.info.

This week on Twitter, there was a most unusual hash tag - that's the word or series of words that are placed at the end of a tweet to be a point of reference and enable you to find similar tweets on that topic.   The hashtag was #AddAWordRuinAChristianBook.   By the end of the day on Monday, it was a top trending topic.   And, a Christianity Today writer, Rachel Marie Stone, from the Her.meneutics blog, is responsible.

She says that, "#AddaWordRuinaMovie was giving me some good social media laughs over the weekend, and Monday morning I thought: "Why not try it with books?" But of course, there are too many books in the world. Better to narrow it down to one (broad) category of books. And then, of course, the guilty pleasure of making hamburger from sacred cow occurred to me.

Trends like #AddaWordRuinaChristianBook may be short-lived and fun, but they also "require sense of religious literacy and tell us about popular opinions" among people of faith on social networks, according to Heidi Campbell, director of the Network for New Media, Religion and Digital Culture Studies at Texas A&M University.

Stone adds, "...most of the tweets have been pretty non-sectarian, and that makes me really happy—what's made me smile a ton over the past 24 hours—is seeing folks from all points on the theological and ecclesiastical spectrum joining in the joke. It's fun to see Cameron Strang of Relevant, Justin Taylor of The Gospel Coalition, Tim Challies, Susan Isaacs, and Eric Metaxas joining New Monastic folks, other neo-reformed people, progressive evangelicals and non-believers having a good laugh all together. It's just such a refreshing change from the frequent state of affairs in the Christian blog and Twittersphere, when people are at each others' throats."

From Challies' blog, some popular targets include Josh Harris' I Kissed Dating Goodbye, which became I Kissed Dating You Goodbye or I Kissed Carbon Dating Goodbye.  Kyle Idleman's Not a Fan yielded Not a Ceiling Fan and Not a Bieber Fan. John Piper's Don't Waste Your Life became Don't Waste Your Life Insurance or Don't Waste Your Lifeboat.   

Stone quotes G.K. Chesterton, who said that it's "the test of a good religion whether you can make a joke about it." Right now, she said it feels like #AddaWordRuinaChristianBook has helped us pass that test.

Four takeaways from this little exercise in being clever and a bit out of the box:

1) Rachel Marie Stone nails one downside of the blogosphere and social media, which might also highlight the human condition - we do tend to skew negative.  You will see a number of sites that do present opinion and demonstrate critical thinking, but I think a steady dose of negative news and commentary can cause us to develop a warped view of reality.   I think that tempering our information with some positive, uplifting words can be quite helpful.

2) It's great to see people from a variety of faith traditions interacting with one another.   Rachel mentioned that people from different streams of thought were having a good laugh together.   Social media is a tool that can help us unite as believers and can be a device through which we share ideas, information, and help us to learn from one another, appreciating our differences and respective points of view.   We can be reminded that there is so much that unites us as believers in Christ, and that makes us a stronger, more healthy body of Christ - that's why I especially like to call attention to events and activities that bring people of faith together, such as the FCA's Fields of Faith last night, or the upcoming River Region Prayer Walk on the 26th.   

3) This little exercise illustrates how one word can change the meaning of a book title.  And, there may be times when one word or a series of ill-chosen words can change the meaning of what you are trying to communicate.  So, we have to be intentional to choose our words carefully.

4) Humor is a tool that is given by God to help us take ourselves less seriously, to help release tension, and to perhaps lighten the load of life.   Laughter is like a medicine, the Bible says, and even being willing to enter into that activity can lead to producing true Biblical joy.

So, don't be hesitant to laugh - it can shape our perspective and maybe even alter our outlook if we are feeling distraught.