Can you please "Like Me."

There was a season in my life when I needed to be liked.  This was my day normally: I open my phone, click on the app and scroll through looking to see how many likes I got.  I toggle back and forth between Instagram and Facebook.  I scroll, comment, share, and post.  Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, and social media at times for me is insanity.  It's not that I am against it, but I have found that there is a deeper rooted problem that is hidden at times from my post, my scroll, and my share.  I want people to like me.  I think it is a deep-rooted longing inside of all of us, we want to connect, we want others to notice us, yet it doesn't matter how many likes I got in my life, I still had the hole of wanting more.
   I think many people crack jokes about those who over post, those who take selfies things like "wow they are self-absorbed" or "wow they are full of themselves."  Laughing at someone else's desperate longing isn't my style,  because I know behind the screen is a real human.  I would never laugh at my child if they were starving, and in today's society, we have a generation starving for connection.  They are starving for the fruit of relationships and they don't know how to get it.  We need a generation of Christians who can see past the filters, likes and comments to see the heart of a person who posts online.  So how do we do it?   The longing we have is to connect with others, where we find it is in covenant community.
    I will be the first to admit many Christians, especially women are stunted relationally.  The church culture of positional relationships based on your performance leave people at times feeling used and worn out. If this is you, can I say I'm sorry and I get it.  There is hope though,  I remember my first pastor's wife Bonita Chesney, and do you know what I remember about her?  Anyone, anywhere, anytime could connect with her and she would listen, then give you advice from the word of God, then she would pray with you.  Your problem wasn't yours, it was the Lords, her identity wasn't connected to helping you and so she could share authentically.   That is what we need, real.
    We need real Christians not worrying about their platform, their social media, or their next book. I for one am weary of being assessed for my assets and then tossed aside when a better option comes along. Real Christians who are focused on getting busy making disciples, equipping the saints, fighting the good fight, and studying the word of God.  Can I be honest?  There is a hurting, broken, and dying world that so desperately wants something they can't describe. Every generation there are some Christians that chase after success, more concerned with their image and who they are taking photos with than real ministry. You name connected with someone else's doesn't matter if that name isn't Jesus.   I was lucky enough in the small church to experience covenant community with leaders who still like me today. I am not on Social Media as much, I don't post near as much as I did, and  I rarely take selfies.  But I spend time with Christain women who are on mission, I encourage and I get honest in my community.  In the same way, Bonita prayed for me, I pray for others.  I get in my word, I study, and I keep my eyes focused on His Kingdom.
    We have a generation crying out "Will you please "Like Me."  I have been that young scared woman, coping the best way I knew how, but not understanding I was begging for someone to like me.  I know other Christian women laughed at me, they labeled me, they let me starve.   But Jesus in his kindness led me to his table.  I didn't have to perform a single thing, post anything, I didn't have to get any likes, I just sat at his table.  Do you know what happened?  He fed me, the first meal I didn't have to beg for with likes.  He smiled at me, He looked at me and said: "daughter I love you." God whispers in my ear "Before you knew you, I knew you. I knit you together, I anointed you, I set you apart, I called you."  I sit at his table and I can finally see past my need.  I look at those women who wouldn't feed me and I realize they are starving as well. Scarcity makes us justify not giving what we have because we are afraid of not having enough, Jesus is the antidote to that.
    I am not asking for likes, shares, or comments.  I am asking for Christian women to rise from our hunger, eat at His table and lead others back.  Because once you sit at Jesus's table, you will never be hungry again.  In the words of Bonita "I may not get on Facebook, but I've got my face in the Book."

   Woman of Valor is a blog that is helping equip brave, strong, biblical women to live on misison.