Umbrellas & Vacuums: Protecting your mind & cleaning up your mess.

An umbrella is something under which we take refuge and find protection. It could be protection from the rain. It could be protection from the snow. In fact, the idea of protection has been used to illustrate many things. For example, an umbrella insurance policy covers a variety of needed protections.

We could use the image of an umbrella to describe scripture. Because it is the word of God. It is a shelter that covers us and provides wisdom and direction for all our life. The scriptures are a source of life and wisdom. In fact, our greatest chance of happiness and success in life is to live under the teachings in scripture.

We do this in two ways. First, we read and study the words of God personally. And secondly, by sitting under the preaching and teaching of the word of God in our local church. If we want to grow a strong spiritual life we must be fed by the solid food of God's Word.

Scripture tells us, “For whatever things have been written before have been written for our learning, and we through the patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” So, my question is how do you have hope in this troubled world without being fed by the word of God?

This brings me to the vacuum. The dictionary defines a vacuum as a space devoid of matter. The word is derived from the Latin word vacuus meaning vacant or void. In a way, if you are not filing your mind and heart with the word of God, you are void of hope, love, joy, peace, grace and mercy. And filing your mind with all the hate, divisiveness and retaliation, which is being spread by social media is kind of like intentionally drinking poison.

In 1643 the first laboratory vacuum was developed. And the vacuum became a valuable industrial tool. But the sweeper was not invented until 1860 when Daniel Hess and American inventor introduced a carpet sweeper. It was patented in 1869 by Wes McGaffey. It was known as a “suction cleaner.” Recently, my grandson saw the robot vacuum start up and head across the family room floor and he said, "That is great timing! It can suck up the mess that I just made.”

Who cleans up our messes these days? Words are hard to vacuum up once they are out there. And it seems to me that more and more people are throwing words out there in conversations, on social media that they should want to vacuum up. And the words spill out in anger, frustration, hate, retribution, and divisiveness. The instinct of retribution is perhaps the strongest instinct of the human heart. Vengeance is a carnal, common response when we feel we have been wronged. And what exaggerates this even more is that the more edgy people get with their social media posts the more readers they sometimes get. That is messed up!

You see, Moses spoke about vengeance belonging to God. He knew that any judgement or retribution for evil must come from God alone, not from man. To seek vengeance on another person is to put ourselves in the place of God to whom vengeance belongs.

The story of Joseph in the scriptures is a classic example. Joseph might have been tempted to exact revenge on his brothers, but he didn’t. Joseph said to his brothers, “Do not be afraid for am I in the place of God."

In Joseph's case, he believed that it is not up to men to pay back the wicked for their deeds, for vengeance if there is any belongs to God alone. Our job is to love others, to listen first and to understand the views of others before we speak. Not to strike out with verbal retribution, etc., or even worse to kill or injure others.

We need to get back to center, not the polar opposite ends of the issues facing us. If we are tempted to express hatred, anger, retribution, etc. we need to turn on the vacuum and suck up the mess.

Part of the problem in today’s world is that social media has imbedded algorithms in their platforms that thrives on the edgy stuff—the hate, negativity, divisiveness and polarization. So, as people are inclined to look at the edgy posts, more and more of it is fed to them.

In recent news, we have seen many shooters take lives needlessly. When we discover that people who commit these heinous crimes were heavily involved in chat rooms, what does that tell us about the grave consequences of peoples over consuming social media promoting violence, hatred, divisiveness, revenge, judgement and polarization. Edgy posts gain traction by the algorithms that are used and certain people desire to gain followers. But at what cost?

It is time to start up the vacuum sweeper and clean up our social media. It is time for each of us to get out our umbrella and get covered by the word of God. Over time, if we search social media for scripture, prayers and stories of goodness rather than hatred, the algorithms will help us to get where we need to be.

We need to change this one person at a time. Let’s clean up our social media, clean up the mess and not get rid of social media. It is a very useful resource, but only if used correctly. And if we all use it for good—for love, joy, peace, grace and goodness maybe we will change the algorithms to the new edginess. Let’s put up our umbrella of protection.

What do you say?