I listen to the radio a lot as I drive. I've heard this commercial come on quite often, where some business offers to help businesses "clean up" their internet searches by taking away negative content. This business will seek out those negative content places and cause them not to pop up on the top of the page when a particular business gets googled. This business's solution to peacemaking: just get rid of the negative stuff out there (I can honestly say I don't know what they would do if someone had posted a negative, yet real story).
It brings to mind the challenge that we face in our day and age when it comes to peacemaking. We live in the internet age (I don't know if anyone else has coined that term, but I'm starting to think of it as such). Living in this age, we can pretty much say anything we want on a website, facebook page, or some other venue, and it sticks there. It may or may not be true. It may or may not "explain everything in the kindest way." But the thing is, for the most part, once it's out on the web, it's very difficult to make it go away.
This presents two major problems to peacemaking in the internet age. First, we humans are way too prone to posting things about our conflicts or problems with others in public venues. Someone says a harsh comment to us, and we blast them on Twitter a few moments later. Our Facebook page starts to resemble some kind of "list of grievances", even if we don't use real names. But the internet age has made it way too easy to air our dirty laundry out for everyone to see.
That makes peacemaking a rather significant challenge. How do you go about correcting and restoring a relationship which now has been advertised as negative to practically anyone who knows how to use Google effectively? We may genuinely want to reconcile and restore, but the sheer magnitude of harm that we can do may make such reconciliation rather challenging.
The other problem with peacemaking in the internet age is that we are way too apt to opt for non-face-to-face interactions. Try to reconcile with someone over an email, or via Twitter, or on Facebook. You might see the challenge. How do they understand your tone and expressions when all they have to rely upon are the words you wrote? Human interaction is so much better, especially when it comes to issues such as reconciliation. I would even argue that phone calls are insufficient for reconciliation, since you can't read the body language of the person you are chatting with.
In other words, we face new challenges to peacemaking in the internet age. The challenge to repair a damaged relationship may extend far beyond merely reconciling with the person. It may involve making a "public" statement of your wrong for others to see (and by public, I mean on the media in which you originally damaged their reputation). It may even mean that you simply cannot undo the damage, and the relationship, though reconciled, may still be irreparably damaged. The danger is real, and I've seen it happen way too often to not say anything about it.
Challenges also bring opportunities. But more than anything, I would always caution anyone whose first inclination is to take things to the public sphere. There is a reason that Jesus said we are to approach the person first with the issue. Heeding the words of the Redeemer of all Creation might just be a wise thing to do.
It brings to mind the challenge that we face in our day and age when it comes to peacemaking. We live in the internet age (I don't know if anyone else has coined that term, but I'm starting to think of it as such). Living in this age, we can pretty much say anything we want on a website, facebook page, or some other venue, and it sticks there. It may or may not be true. It may or may not "explain everything in the kindest way." But the thing is, for the most part, once it's out on the web, it's very difficult to make it go away.
This presents two major problems to peacemaking in the internet age. First, we humans are way too prone to posting things about our conflicts or problems with others in public venues. Someone says a harsh comment to us, and we blast them on Twitter a few moments later. Our Facebook page starts to resemble some kind of "list of grievances", even if we don't use real names. But the internet age has made it way too easy to air our dirty laundry out for everyone to see.
That makes peacemaking a rather significant challenge. How do you go about correcting and restoring a relationship which now has been advertised as negative to practically anyone who knows how to use Google effectively? We may genuinely want to reconcile and restore, but the sheer magnitude of harm that we can do may make such reconciliation rather challenging.
The other problem with peacemaking in the internet age is that we are way too apt to opt for non-face-to-face interactions. Try to reconcile with someone over an email, or via Twitter, or on Facebook. You might see the challenge. How do they understand your tone and expressions when all they have to rely upon are the words you wrote? Human interaction is so much better, especially when it comes to issues such as reconciliation. I would even argue that phone calls are insufficient for reconciliation, since you can't read the body language of the person you are chatting with.
In other words, we face new challenges to peacemaking in the internet age. The challenge to repair a damaged relationship may extend far beyond merely reconciling with the person. It may involve making a "public" statement of your wrong for others to see (and by public, I mean on the media in which you originally damaged their reputation). It may even mean that you simply cannot undo the damage, and the relationship, though reconciled, may still be irreparably damaged. The danger is real, and I've seen it happen way too often to not say anything about it.
Challenges also bring opportunities. But more than anything, I would always caution anyone whose first inclination is to take things to the public sphere. There is a reason that Jesus said we are to approach the person first with the issue. Heeding the words of the Redeemer of all Creation might just be a wise thing to do.
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